


Territory

by orphan_account



Series: Twisted Games [1]
Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Angst, Captive, Group Kidnapping, Kidnapping, M/M, Magic, Seperation, Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-31
Updated: 2013-07-31
Packaged: 2017-12-21 23:14:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 35,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/906089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two years apart. Can Magnus and Alec fix their relationship after being apart so long, even though Alec's started a new relationship?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Call

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, this is a super old story and while I love the concept I acknowledge that this has a crap ton of flaws in both grammar, spelling, plot, and overall writing. I still love it though, and I hope to re-write it some day. But for now I'm uploading it as is since I'm transfering all my fanfiction over here from FF.net

"Alec! Where are you?" Isabelle screeched over the cell phone.

"I'm on the steps, relax. It's just a ravener nest, there isn't a huge rush." I rolled my eyes. Isabelle could be so overly dramatic at times.

"You said you'd be here five minutes ago!"

"You only called five minutes ago…" I mumbled before I snapped the phone shut and stepped onto the elevator. She'd be mad that I hung up, but I wasn't wasting my minutes talking to her when we were in the same building. I had better things to use my minutes for, like listening to Magnus rant about how he couldn't choose what kind of cake we should have at our wedding. That was much more interesting then Isabelle's ranting.

I strode quickly to the library expecting to find my brother and sister waiting for me impatiently. Jace would probably be sprawled on the couch with a board expression on his face, Isabelle would be behind the couch with her arms crossed and scowling. I chuckled quietly at how predictable the two of them could be.

Carefully I pushed the door in only to find a dark and seemingly empty room.

"Jace? Isabelle? I think we're a little past hiding in the dark to jump out at each other…" I mumbled, but I didn't get an answer. I frowned and turned to go see if they were in the training room, or maybe the kitchen.

"Personally, I don't think anyone is ever 'a little past hiding in the dark to jump out at each other', It's quite fun to watch them scream when you jump out, after all." A voice sounded from in the library. I tensed and slowly went for the dagger at my belt, hoping that whatever it was wouldn't notice the action.

"It's more fun when the person doing the jumping gets their head cut off for their trouble." I replied tensely.

"Maybe, but technically, I didn't jump, just spoke."

"Doesn't change anything." I finally slipped the dagger out and held it tightly in my hand as I tried to pinpoint where the disembodied voice was coming from.

"Not," without making any noise the voice was suddenly right in my ear, "a good idea." It finished. Before I could spin to attack something brushed the back of my neck. My body locked up and I dropped to the floor with a hallow thud.

My entire body was tensed up and locked in place; I couldn't even move my fingers. My mouth though…

"Who the fuck are you?" I snapped, the threat was greatly diminished by my position on the floor.

"The High Warlock of Manhattan, if you really must know." He smirked. The most I could make out was his rough outline in the darkness. He wasn't as tall as me, and didn't appear to have much muscle either. Sadly though, that didn't mean that he didn't have much magic. This was a high warlock after all.

So what did this guy want with me? I was just a twenty-one year old shadowhunter, and not even a good one at that. I'd killed what, five demons? Maybe?

"Curious? I can see it on your face." He chuckled, "You know, none of this would've happened if the Clave had just listened to me. All I wanted was a seat on the council, nothing hard about that right? Well they just kept saying no. So now, we're going to see how they do without their best hunters. I'm going to collect a fair amount of the exceptional shadowhunters, and keep all of you until the Clave listens to me.

"You though, you I want for another reason other than your exceptional skills." Exceptional skills? "I'm taking you as a way to punish Magnus Bane for stepping into my territory. He should've just stayed in Brooklyn, and maybe I would've left you alone. But no, he has to come running in here all the time to take care of his little pet shadowhunters."

Territory, territory!? This was about freaking city boundary lines? This guy was taking me to punish Magnus for walking around in Manhattan?

Before I could finish off my internal rant my vision started to blur before I passed out completely, my body still frozen in place on the floor.


	2. Note

I hummed tunelessly as I twirled my eyeliner pencil between my fingers while I debated what to do with my make-up for the day.

"Swirls, maybe?" I mused to myself. "What do you think, Chairmen Meow?" The little ball of fluff was perched on top of the toilet watching me out of the corner of his eye as he licked his paws.

He just looked at me for a moment before going back to licking.

"That isn't very helpful, you know. I wanted some honest advice." I muttered.

He just let out a soft mew that sounded rather sarcastic. It probably meant something along the lines of "Feed me fresh tuna every day, then maybe I'll give you some advice."

Just as I was about to go into how fat he would get if he ate tuna every day there was a sharp "tat-tat" on the front door. The knock was Isabelle's, quick and precise.

"Hello, Isa-" I started to say before she barged past me and into the apartment. Jace was on her heels, though he didn't look anywhere near as ticked off as her.

"Where is Alec?! I've called him six times about that demon report uptown and he hasn't answered once!" Isabelle fumed.

"Um, he left here half an hour ago, after you told him about the call…" I informed her as she moved to go look into our bedroom.

"What?" She whirled to face me, "…we only got the call fifteen minutes ago, if that."

"Well, he left half an hour ago. He said you called about a ravener nest." This was a little strange.

"Who did he say called?" Jace asked, speaking up for the first time.

"He said it was Isabelle."

"And he went back to the institute?"

"That's what he said."

"Well then we'll just go to the institute and figure out what's going on." Jace shrugged. I nodded and grabbed my jacket on our way out the door.

We all strode to the subway and quickly took the few empty seats left. Jace looked completely at ease as he slouched in his seat texting someone, probably Clary, and Isabelle just looked irritated. I couldn't help but be a little worried though. This wasn't like Alec. He never lied to me, so why would he tell me Isabelle had called if she hadn't?

"Magnus, stop fidgeting. It's annoying." Jace snapped.

"Well excuse me for being worried that my _fiancé_ got a call from someone who he thought was is sister, when in fact she never called him, after which he has apparently disappeared!" I hissed.

"Did it ever occur to you he could've just done it to get away from you long enough to buy you a wedding present or something?" He retorted.

"That doesn't explain why he didn't answer Isabelle's actual calls. Even if he was out looking for a wedding present for me, something we both already agreed we wouldn't do, he would still answer if one of you called!" Jace frowned at the end of my little tirade before shrugging and going back texting.

The subway groaned to a halt and I quickly alighted to the platform ahead of the others. I couldn't help but look around for Alec's familiar features, his messy hair and startlingly blue eyes.

"If you're honestly that worried about him, why are we just standing here?" I just stalked passed Jace without bothering to answer. How Alec even stood to be around him, let alone deluded himself into thinking he liked him was beyond even my several hundred years of knowledge.

From the subway to the institute was around a five minute walk, each step clogged with people going every direction possible on the tiny sidewalks. And yet all of them going their various directions seemed to have the specific purpose of making sure you couldn't go the direction _you_ wanted. At least the crowds thinned around the institute. It seemed as though the mudanes, even though they saw it as a decrepit old building, could feel the power emanating from it and elected to give the area a wide berth.

Isabelle stepped in front of me and pushed the old oak door open, marched inside and started shouting Alec's name. Jace just snickered at her antics as the two of us trailed behind her into the elevator.

"Isabelle, stop shouting." I snapped, rubbing at my ear in an attempt to restore some of my hearing. She just huffed and strode out of the elevator towards the library. Jace moved towards the kitchen and I walked down the hall to Alec's room.

Alec didn't spend hardly anytime here anymore, just the occasional night every now and then when the circumstances called for it. Only the bare essentials were kept here, a set of clothes and shoes, a set of his gear, and the basic bathroom necessities. All of it would probably have a thin coat of dust on it by now; it had been about a month since he last spent the night.

When I reached the door I turned the handle while jerking the door slightly up, it was the only way to get the old slab to consider opening. But when I stepped inside I didn't find what I had expected to. His few items that were kept here were nowhere in sight and there was a folded piece of paper resting on his bedside table. I could feel the blood drain from my face as I stared at the paper, hoping it wasn't what I was thinking it was. Shakily I reached out and gingerly lifted the paper from the table. I stared at it for a moment before I took a deep breath and unfolded it.

A short message was scrawled across the paper in Alec's slightly messy handwriting,

**_I'm sorry, Magnus. I just can't do this anymore._ **

**_-Alec_ **

I felt my knees hit the floor as I read and re-read the message over and over again, maybe I'd read it wrong. Maybe it was all a bad dream, or a sick joke. There was no way Alec would do this, things were perfect! He'd proposed to me only a month ago, an act that had nearly made me faint from surprise. I never would've expected him to do something like that, but he did have a knack for surprising me.

"Magnus, he isn't in the kitchen or the library… Why are you on the floor?" Isabelle said from behind me.

"He, he's gone. Alec's gone. He took his stuff and left." I whispered, to shocked to actually take in what I'd just said, everything it meant.


	3. Asthma

Bit by bit I started to come to. Small noises accosted my ears first, then the noises became murmurs coupled with strange scents. The air had a stale tang to it and smelled like old, rotting wood. The murmuring took on a familiar tone as recognizable words started to drift past my ears.

"Where are…"

"How…get here?"

"What happened?"

"Who…us?"

"…going on?"

What _was_ going on? The last thing I remembered was walking into the institute to find Jace and Isabelle. I cracked my eyes open, expecting a bright blast of light, but all I saw was a dim room. Carefully I opened my eyes the rest of the way and sat up. It didn't seem like I was hurt, and I didn't feel sick, but I didn't have any idea of what was going on or where I was either, which was rather concerning. I looked around the barren little room I was in. I was sitting on a rickety cot that was placed against the back wall of the room directly across from the door. There was nothing else in the room, no rug, no blankets on the bed. Nothing.

Cautiously I stood up and moved towards the door. It was obvious the voices were coming from the other side, but the voices were muffled through the door. I listened closely but only caught the same things I'd heard before. Reaching down to my belt I felt for my dagger only to realize it wasn't there, and neither were any of my other weapons.

"Lovely." I murmured to myself. I stepped to the side of the door and cracked it open to peak out into the outer room. There was a large group of people, thirty or so, men, women and even a few young children. The adults were all clustered in a group talking frantically to one another while the children were huddled in various groups around the room. After several minutes I decided they weren't a threat and stepped into the large, circular room.

"O' Angel, please tell us you know what's going on!?" One woman, early thirties maybe and obviously a shadowhunter, asked when she saw me step out.

I shook my head, "No, I just woke up here." She looked crestfallen that I couldn't give her an answer.

"What's the last thing you remember?" A man asked, he looked around thirty, thirty-five years old.

"Going into the institute in New York to look for my brother and sister." I told him. "So none of you know what's going on?"

Everyone shook their heads sadly, "We all just woke up here." Someone said.

"Does anyone know who the kids are?" I asked. Most of the children were scared and crying; most were curled up on the floor. I wanted to punch something when I saw that several of the about ten children were no more than five years old.

"No, we're pretty sure they all just woke up here, but none of them will talk to us. They're really scared." Another woman spoke up.

"So you're just gonna let them sit there and be scared? Have you even tried to get them to calm down a little?" I frowned. One of these people had to have some experience with children. Was it so hard to go over and make sure they were alright?

I honestly wasn't that much of a fan of most small children. I didn't hate them, but they weren't very high on my list either. None the less, someone had to do something. There was a chance one of these kids knew something about what was going on.

I moved over to the closest child and sat down about a foot away from her. She had red hair and hazel eyes with freckles covering most of her face and her arms as well. The poor thing had tear tracks down her cheeks and didn't look more than six years old. Her t-shirt hung loosely on her tiny frame and had a picture of a teddy bear on it.

"What's your name, sweetheart?" I asked quietly. She blinked and looked a little confused at finally being acknowledged.

"Melisa." She answered.

"That's a very pretty name. Do you remember how you got here, Melisa?" She shook her head and swiped at the tears on her face with the back of her hand.

"I want my mommy." She sniffed.

"I know, sweetie, we're gonna try and find a way out of here." By now most of the other kids had picked their heads up and were staring in my direction.

"Do you know where we are?" A young boy asked, he was youthful as well, but not as much as some of the others.

"No, but we're gonna figure it out." I attempted to give all of them a reassuring smile before I stood back up to look at the other adults. "Has anyone tried looking around for a way out of here?"

"Yeah, we've checked all the rooms. No windows, no doors other then into the rooms themselves, not even air vents." A man spoke up.

"We even tried breaking down some of the walls, but they're all completely solid." Another said.

"Fuck... Do any of you know how long you've been here?" Someone had to know something about what was going on, even if they didn't realize it.

"No, the earliest someone woke up was about twenty hours ago, and the last thing any of us remember is just doing normal, everyday tasks." Said what appeared to be the oldest man there, he was still no more than forty though.

Okay, so maybe no one here did know anything. That was just great. I pressed my fingers to my temples in an attempt to suppress my oncoming headache. How was it that thirty people, twenty of them adults, could be locked in a room and none of them have any idea of how they got there?

"Alright, well what's everyone's name then? If we were going to be stuck in here, we might as well know who we all were."

"Derrick." He looked around mid twenties and had a long scar sloping down his neck.

"Mike." Mike didn't look more than twenty and had sandy blond hair.

"Jeffery." He also looked main twenties, but looked like he had fought a lot more battles then Derrick.

"John." John looked about thirty and had his head shaved completely.

"Zach." Zach was a very tall guy, maybe six foot ten.

"Marty." He seemed to be about seventeen, maybe eighteen.

"Ian." Ian and Marty were definitely identical twins.

"Jared." Jared appeared to be the oldest person here.

"Paul." Then again, maybe Paul was the oldest.

"Jeremy." Jeremy couldn't have been more than twenty but he already looked like he'd been mauled several times over.

"Elizabeth." She appeared more upset then the rest and had tears slowly falling down her face and her arms were wrapped tightly around her stomach.

"Jessie." Jessie was young, just a teenager.

"Taylor." Taylor…was probably female, or a slightly feminine guy.

"Kim." Kim seemed like a very motherly figure, around thirty probably.

"Erica." Erica looked slightly unstable, her eyes were darting around and she kept clenching her fist and smacking it against her leg.

"Amanda." Amanda gave the impression of being like a very shy girl, but she was also had the marks of a very good fighter.

"Sarah." Sarah just looked board with the whole situation and was leaning against a wall examining her fingernails.

None of the children responded, and neither did a guy curled up in the corner of the room. He wasn't a child, but he was small. The guy was curled up in a ball with his head on his knees and arms wrapped tightly around his legs. His hair was a light blond and had pale pink streaks in it. His shirt was bright pink and his pants were lime green skinny jeans. How I hadn't noticed him was beyond me. When I actually looked closer at him I noticed that he was trembling.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked as I knelt next to him. He just shook his head but didn't look up. "What's wrong?"

"Asthma." He gasped, still not lifting his head.

"Do you have an inhaler?" Once more he just shook his head. Now that I was right next to him I could hear him gasping and see his body shaking from his efforts to breath. "Here, sit up a bit then, curling up like that can't be helping anything." I told him. Slowly he unfolded himself and I let him lean against me with my arm wrapped around his back.

Unfortunately, uncurling didn't help him as much as I'd hoped and he continued to gasp and wheeze. By now everyone was watching with concern.

"Here, I'm gonna try and stop your asthma attack, alright?" I told him. He looked confused but nodded anyway. Carefully I focused on the energy pulsing in the crystal on my neck, the crystal Magnus had given me for my nineteenth birthday.

It was a blood crystal; a warlock could put some of their blood into the crystal and using several very old, very powerful spells, infuse their magic into the crystal as well. The magic in the crystal could then be used by the wearer and would always regenerate as long as it wasn't completely depleted. Magnus had given me a long lecture several days prior to giving to me about how I got hurt way too often.

Once I felt myself connect with the magic I pressed my hand against the guy's chest and quickly soothed his asthma attack. He took several deep breaths and laid his head against my chest.

"You okay now?" I asked.

"Yeah, how, how did you do that?" He asked.

"This," I pulled my necklace out, "it was a gift from my fiancé, he's a warlock, and this lets me use a little bit of his magic."

"So you could use that to send out a message, right?" Erica asked hopefully.

I shook my head sadly, "No, I've already tried. I can't send anything out or bring anything in." Everyone looked downcast at my statement.

"So, what's your name?" I looked back down at the small man resting against my chest, slightly taken aback when I saw that the pink in his hair seemed less pale and more vibrant then before.

"Ben." He answered. "Yours?"

"Alec." I told him.

"Alec. Thanks for helping me."

"You're welcome."

"So, what now?" He asked, putting voice to everyone's thoughts.

"I…don't know." I answered.


	4. Shelter

The next few hours were spent wandering around the large main room, in and out of the bedrooms that branched off of the main room and asking the same questions over and over again. No matter where anyone looked, there didn't seem to be a way out of this place. No drains, no vents and completely seamless walls and floors. Whoever had made this place had been very careful at making sure there was no way out. I'd already considered trying to open a portal, but had given up once I realized that my necklace didn't have enough magic for that.

Ben had fallen asleep on my shoulder and I was content to leave him there, it gave me an excuse not to have to get up and look around for an exit that wasn't there like the others were doing. It was strange, when I looked at Ben and is ostentatious outfit, I couldn't help but think of Magnus and how much I missed him. Ever since we'd actually started dating I'd never been away from him for more than a few days and I'd always been able to call or text him.

"FUCKING LET US OUT!" Zach shouted, banging against a wall with his fists.

"Zach! That won't do anything. Whoever put us in here won't let us out just because you bang on the walls." I chastised.

"No, it won't. But I do rather enjoy watching you try." A strange voice echoed through the room. Ben jumped awake and several of the children whimpered and clung to each other.

"Who…?" Jessie whispered quietly as her eyes darted around the room.

"Please, by all means, keep banging on the walls. It amuses me." The voice chuckled. Zach growled and went to punch the wall full force but just before his fist could connect the building we were in vanished and he went toppling forward. Rapidly I jumped to my feet; Ben did the same staying close to my side. Once he stood up I realized how small he really was, he just barely made it to my shoulder.

We were in what looked like a forest and the overcast sky above was a sickly grey-brown colour. There were no other buildings in sight and the one we had been in was completely gone, there were no indicators at all of where we were. The only thing around us was a pile of generic backpacks, it looked like there was one for each of us.

The second the walls had vanished several people had taken off into the woods, it looked like the ones who had left were Mike, Jeffery, Zach, Erica and Amanda. Other than those five, everyone else had the sense to remain put. Carefully I walked over to the pile of backpacks with Ben. When I actually looked at the bags I saw that each had a tag with a name on it. I found the one with my name on the tag and unzipped one to see what was inside. It looked like the contents of a survival kit. Two canteens of water, a hunting knife, a small first aid kit, a change of clothes, a blanket, and various packages of dried food. Everyone else's appeared to have the same things inside except for the children's which didn't contain a knife but a small story book instead.

"What the fuck is this all for?" Ben mumbled as he examined his bag.

"For the games." The voice from earlier echoed out from nowhere. "And those games, begin now."

"Who the hell are you?" Derrick shouted at the source-less voice. He didn't get an answer.

"What now?" Elizabeth asked quietly, she still had her arms wrapped protectively around her stomach. Instantly there was a myriad of voices all suggesting what we should do now. None of them seemed to actually come up with a good answer though, and several heated arguments broke out.

"I hate when people shout." Ben mumbled, stepping behind me slightly.

"Yeah, me to." I pressed two of my knuckles to my lips and let out a shrill whistle, hoping it would get everyone's attention. Thankfully, the noise was effective.

"What?" Taylor said irritably.

"Look, it's almost dark and we don't know how cold it could get. We need to find a place to sleep for the night and then we can figure out more about what's going on tomorrow." I told them. After a bit of grumbling everyone agreed and grabbed their packs. Several of the adults helped the youngest kids with theirs and some even decided to carry the littlest ones. Once everyone was ready we took off looking for a good place to sleep for the night, or some sign of where we were.

"I hate this. I just wanna go home." Ben mumbled. We'd been walking for maybe twenty minutes now and Ben and I had ended up near the front of our group. Everyone else was trailing along behind, moaning about how we shouldn't be worrying about shelter, but instead finding out what was going on.

"Where is home?" I asked, just to break the monotony of walking through the dismal woods.

"A little town in northern California, there's only about four hundred people in the town, and then a few people who live just outside the town's limits but come in for the store and such."

"That sounds nice. I've always liked little towns, I like the quite."

"Yeah, the quite is a plus. The lack of demons is the best part though."

"I'm sure it is... Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why is your hair changing colours?"

"Oh," He let out a small, half hearted laugh, "my grandmother was a fey, so I've got some fey in me. The streaks of color in my hair change depending on my mood, my eyes do it to." He explained as he brushed his hair out of his eyes revealing that they were the same light pink as the streaks in his hair.

"Interesting." I sighed and looked off into the woods.

"What? You think that's creepy or something?" Ben looked slightly offended at my response.

"No, I just… it made me think of my fiancé, that's all. He dyes his hair all the time."

"You're engaged?"

"Yeah."

"What's his name?"

"Magnus. I've known him for about three years; we've been engaged for a couple months now."

"That's sweet."

We walked in silence for awhile after that just listening to snippets of other conversations. Ian and Marty were arguing over who had won a basketball game the other night, and Kim had her arm around Elizabeth and was gently consoling the distraught woman. The others were griping about our situation.

"…Alec, will, will Magnus look for you?" Ben asked suddenly.

"I hope so." I answered after a moment.

"I know my family will. They know I'd never just leave like this…I can't just leave like this." He mumbled the last part.

"Well, at least we know that one of our families will definitely be looking for us. That's something."

"Yeah."

"Hey! Look at that!" Ian shouted suddenly. He was bouncing excitedly in front of a sign posted next to a small foot path. Sadly the sign was old and barely legible. The most anyone could make out was "Met—fac---y 2--les. "

"Well that isn't helpful." Someone mumbled.

"It's a little helpful, at least there's some chance we're near civilization." Another person responded.

"I say we head in the direction of that arrow." Taylor said, she…he… whatever, was standing next to Ben and I.

"It's not an arrow! It's a triangle." Jeremy argued.

"You only have one eye…" someone pointed out.

"Well I still got the other one and it works just fine!" He snapped.

"Alright, alright calm down. Yes, there is a chance it isn't an arrow. But if it is then there could be people in that direction so lets take the chance and go that way." I suggested.

"I agree with the kid." Jared spoke up from the back. Jared was a rather large guy, around six foot ten maybe and very heavily built, no one was really willing to argue with him.

"I guess we follow the arrow then." Taylor spoke up when no one else said anything or moved to go in the direction the supposed arrow pointed. Before anyone else responded Taylor was already walking down the path.

"Is that a guy or a chick?" Ben whispered as we followed.

"I've been wondering the same thing." I answered.

"Good, I'm glad it isn't just me."

"Me to."

After about twenty minutes a large building loomed up out of the semi-darkness. As soon as people caught site of it they took of running. Thankfully though some of us had enough sense to stay a good distance away from the strange building. It was maybe two stories tall, with about ten windows spaced evenly across one side and five spaced along the other along with a metal door. Most of the windows were cracked and dingy; some of them were broken or even completely gone. The building looked completely abandoned, there wasn't even a road leading to it from what I could see, and there was trash littered everywhere.

"Guys, we should search that building. We don't know what or who might be in there. For all we know it could be a demon nest." I shouted.

The mere mention of "demon nest" stopped the runners in their tracks.

"Kim, could you stay out here and watch the kids?" I asked. She did seem the most motherly after all. Elizabeth elected to stay with Kim and the kids.

"Sure." She nodded and went to coral all the children into one area.

Everyone else dropped their bags, taking only the knives, as we all moved carefully towards the door. As soon as we were inside everyone spread out and carefully looked through the rooms.

The place looked like it may have been a military base or something similar at one time. There was a large cafeteria with an old buffet line and tables with the chairs attached. Three large rooms with ten made-up cots each, the cots were spread along one wall and a small dresser across from each bed. Even a library filled with dusty books and stuffed chairs. There was nothing overly remarkable about the place though, nothing that really stood out or gave us some idea of where we were.

"There isn't anything useful here." Paul groaned.

"We don't know that, it's not like we've examined everything. At the very least it should be a safe place to stay for awhile. The women can have one room, the guys can take another, the last can be for the kids unless they want to sleep with someone else." I spoke up. "Ben, why don't you go outside and grab everyone else so we can get settled for the night." He nodded and slipped back outside returning moments later with Kim, Elizabeth and the kids.

We explained what we were going to do and they agreed quickly. The two of them took the kids to the room we had decided to give them and tucked all of them in, electing to sleep in there that night. Everyone else wandered into the other two rooms except for Ben, Jared and I.

"We should keep watch. Whoever it was that put us here could show up at any time and we don't know what they want." Jared suggested.

"I agree." I told him, Ben just nodded.

"Right, I'll take first watch then. You take second and Paul can take third. If we each go for three hours we should get through the night alright."

"Sounds good to me." I told him.

"Right, I'll come wake you up in a few hours then." He told me as he walked back towards the entrance.

Ben and I walked into the guy's room and took the last two beds at the very end of the room. Strangely, the sheets and pillows looked fresh which was a little creepy.

"It's like all this stuff was put here just for us." Ben was eyeing the bed warily, like he expected it to jump up and eat him. Those fears were soon dissipated when he saw Ian and Marty start jumping on theirs like a couple of five year olds. He watched them for a moment before pulling off his jacket, shoes and belt and climbing into bed. I eventually lay down as well just staring at the cracked ceiling.

After what seemed like several moments Jared was shaking me awake saying it was my turn to take watch. I didn't even remember falling asleep. I mumbled groggily that he should go get some sleep as I pulled my shoes back on. Grabbing my knife I walked quietly out of the room and outside. The cold air quickly cleared my senses once I stepped through the door.

I did a quick walk around the building before I settled against one of the walls. The sky was still overcast so there were no stars to judge where we were by. The woods were thick in every direction and my walk around the building confirmed my earlier suspicion that there were no roads. In fact, there didn't even seem to be any paths other then the one we had come off of.

Other then a small deer running through the minute clearing around the building and nearly giving me a heart attack nothing interesting happened over the three hours I had watch. Gratefully I trudged back inside and woke Paul before I collapsed back into my bed.

Just as I was about to drift off I heard Ben whimper and shift in his bed.

"Ben, are you okay?" I whispered. He didn't answer so I stood back up and sat on the edge of his bed. He was still asleep but his eyes were clenched shut and he looked like he was in pain. "Ben, wake up." I shook him gently and he bolted up right with a loud gasp.

"…Alec."

"Right here, are you okay?" He just shook his head. Carefully I wrapped my arm around him in attempt to sooth him a bit. "Anything I can do?"

"Just…just sit here with me for awhile, please."

"I can do that."


	5. Questions

"Alec wouldn't just leave." Jace argued. It was the same thing he'd been repeating for the last few hours.

"Well you tell me where the hell he is then!" I shouted at him. "Since you obviously know so damn much!"

"I don't know but…"

"BUT NOTHING! He fucking ran off. He took his shit and left. And apparently we all mean so damn little to him all we get is a scribbled note!"

"Magnus," Isabelle spoke up timidly.

"SHUT UP! All of you just shut up!" I screeched at her. "I'm done with this! Just forget it. If he wants to freaking disappear we may as well let him." I wrenched the engagement ring from my finger and flung it onto the floor before turning and sprinting out of the institute.

As soon as I cleared the door I kept right on going to the sidewalk, not bothering to put a glamour on myself. I didn't pay any mind to the pedestrians screeching at me as I streaked through them shoving the ones who didn't move fast enough out of my way. One man tried to yank me back by grabbing my arm roughly but I just shoved my elbow into his gut and continued my escape.

I crashed through the door of my apartment and collapsed to my knees, sobs wracking my body. How could this have happened? Why would Alec just leave? Had I done something wrong, said something, messed something up? Things had seemed perfect, better then ever, so what had gone wrong?

"What had I done? What had I done? What had I done?" Raced endlessly through my head. I couldn't catch my breath; it felt like someone had twisted my throat shut. I just sat there for ages as the shadows cast by the light through the windows raced along the floor until they faded away. Eventually I didn't even have anymore tears to cry, but I still sat there sobbing.

After awhile, I don't know how long, I looked up and caught sight of myself in a mirror. My make-up was streaked down my face, my colorful clip-in hair extensions in disarray. I just sat there for awhile staring at myself in the mirror, I couldn't remember the last time I'd looked this bad. Another few moments passed before I stood up on shaky legs and moved to my bathroom to clean-up.

I was running on auto-pilot, not really feeling anything. Once the make-up was scrubbed clean and my hair combed I stepped back to look at myself in the full-length bathroom mirror. What was it that had made Alec decide to leave? What about me was so wrong as to make him leave like this?

Groggily I opened my eyes to find myself on my bathroom floor, completely unaware of ever having fallen asleep there. I peeled myself off of the tiles and stumbled to my kitchen in search of food I didn't really want but knew I needed.

Without thinking I pulled open the door of the fridge and grabbed the first thing I touched. I dropped it when I saw what it was. It was a small box of leftovers from when Alec and I had gone to dinner two nights ago. He hadn't been able to finish it at the restaurant so he'd brought it home to finish later.

I felt all the air leave my lungs in another round of choking sobs. My head was spinning as I slid heavily down the wall I'd fallen against. I couldn't stay here. I had to get out of this apartment, now. But I couldn't make myself move, as much as I wanted to escape the memories, I couldn't. I needed them to much.


	6. Comfort

I awoke the next morning, back in my own bed, but sometime during the night Ben had crawled in with me. It was a little awkward, I couldn't help but think of Magnus, but I felt sorry for him. Carefully I pulled myself away from him and walked out to the hall. Jared was already up and dressed.

"Do you sleep? At all?" I asked as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

"I get the sleep I need." He responded. It was then that I noticed the blood spattered on his pants and staining his hands.

"Umm, blood?" I questioned.

"Yeah, I got a deer. It's roasting now, Paul is tending the fire." Jared responded. "We needed something more then the dried food in our packs."

"…so you went out and killed a dear…with just a hunting knife?"

"We do the same with Demons, don't we?" Jared responded, quirking an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I guess that's true." Not that it made any more sense in my exhausted mind then it had before.

"Go wake the others. Breakfast in five." Jared requested as he turned and walked back outside. It took nearly half an hour to rouse everyone and get them into the cafeteria type area we had found. By the time we got there Jared and Paul had laid out quite a little buffet on one of the tables. The smell of the fresh meat wafted through the room and there were several piles of raspberries which Paul said he found off in the woods a little ways. Kim had dug a thing of poptarts out of the bags for everyone and overall it was a rather good meal for being stuck in the middle of nowhere in an abandoned building.

"Alright everyone," I started when I saw everyone had finished, save a few of the children who had contented themselves with smashing the raspberries and making a rather large mess with them. "We need to try and figure out what we do next."

This simple statement caused the room to erupt in chatter. Ben, who was sitting next to me quietly, clasped his hands over his ears in an attempt to drown them out. I gave his shoulder a comforting squeeze before standing up and letting out a shrill whistle that was normally reserved for stopping Jace from doing something stupid.

"Alright, let's try and keep this _semi-_ civil, shall we?" They all mumbled and nodded at my statement. "Okay, we still really don't have any idea where we are or what is going on. Right now, I think we should stay here. We've got shelter, more then enough room for everyone and apparently a food source."

"And a water source!" Ian piped up. "There's a little spring outside, I saw it when I went out to pi…pee this morning."

"But we need to figure out what's going on so we can go home!" Jordan said stubbornly, she was the oldest of the children, 12 if I remembered correctly what Kim had told me earlier.

"We will figure it out, but Alec is right about us needing to stay here. We're safe here; we can work on figuring everything out while we're here." Jeremy put in. After a few reluctant moments of consideration everyone gave in and nodded in agreement.

"Alright, so who has family or friends that will, no matter what, come looking for them?" Sarah asked the group at large. We all assumed the children would have that, but only a few of the others raised their hands, myself and Ben included.

"You're all one hundred percent sure they'll come?" Taylor asked skeptically, she was not one of the people who had raised their hands.

"I KNOW they will, no matter what." Ben ground out, glaring in Taylor's direction.

"Hey, easy. Didn't mean to offend, but it's always a possibility that they won't give a shit." She shrugged. At this Ben shoved back from the table and stalked from the room.

"Great job." Someone muttered.

"Taylor, that was a bit much. We're all stressed right now, some more then others so please, just take it down a notch. Not everyone can handle things like that." I reprimanded her before following after Ben.

I found him back in our room, curled up on his bed and sobbing.

"Ben." I said softly and I sat on the edge of the bed.

"I know they'll look for me!" He bit out.

"I know Ben, I don't doubt it." I reassured him.

"They know I'd never just leave like this…that I can't just leave like this." At the second statement, his voice quieted to just a whisper. It was the same thing he had said to me in the woods the day before.

"What do you mean?"

"I…something happened when I was a kid and I just…I have really bad separation issues now." He mumbled. So that's why he'd been so upset.

"Tell me about your family." I asked as I sat next to him in the bed, turning so I was leaning against the wall at the head of the bed.

He was quite for a bit before he sat up and scooted over next to me, his arms around his knees.

"I live with a bunch of my friends, in a really big mansion I inherited from my grandparents. There's Johny, a warlock, his older brother J.C. who is a vampire which a _very_ long story, and Andy and Eric who are twins and both werewolves."

"You sound like you care about them a lot."

"I do. Johny was born in 1912, J.C. in 1908. Johny was a warlock, and when J.C. found out that Johny was immortal, he went out and slept with a vampire and got himself changed on purpose so he could stay with his little brother. Johny beat the shit out of him for it, he was 24 at the time. Andy and Eric are 22, they're identical twins. When Andy was 12 he got bitten by a werewolf, and for some reason it changed Eric to." Ben spent the next hour recounting some of the exploits he'd gotten into with his friends.

They all apparently worked as cops in their little town with Andy and Eric serving as police dogs, something that I had to fight very hard not to laugh at. The idea of werewolves serving as police dogs was very strange, but when I though about it I realized it was actually kind of a good idea. A real dog could only have a limited understanding of his human partner, but a werewolf still had that human side that could understand everything.

Eventually Ben nodded off to sleep, probably catching up on the sleep he hadn't got last night because of his nightmare. I laid him down on the bed and pulled the blanket over him before turning to go back to the others. After a second thought I turned and left my woven bracelet, another gift from Magnus, next to Ben. I didn't want him waking up and freaking out because I was gone.


	7. Pacing

"Andy, stop pacing. Ruining the carpet will not help us find Ben." J.C. snapped.

"Well do you have any brilliant ideas?" I shouted.

"Andy, stop, please. We all know you're worried about Ben, we all are. But we all need to just take a step back so we can think this through." Eric pleaded gently.

"Take a step back? This is my husband we're talking about! My husband who would never, under any circumstances just up and leave. I don't care what that damn note said, I don't care that it was in his handwriting. Ben. Would. Not. Leave." I said through gritted teeth.

"We know, Andy. We know Ben wouldn't do this. But we still need to take a step back so we can figure it out." Johny said softly.

"Whatever." I stalked out of the room kicking over a small table with books stacked on it as I went.

Why didn't they get it? Ben wouldn't just leave. Maybe, just maybe he would leave for a week or two. But two years? Two years was way beyond the scope of reason.

I stumbled outside and into one of the chairs we had adorning our oversized deck. Tears were stinging my eyes but I refused to let them fall, Ben had always hated it when I cried. Two years since I'd seen him smile, heard him laugh or held him when he woke up shaking from his nightmares. I couldn't stand it any more, not being able to hold him and talk to him. To tell him everything was alright. To have him tell me everything was alright.

"Happy 23rd birthday, baby." I whispered as I pulled out the newest photo I had of him and brushed my thumb gently across the worn surface. The photo was from the last day I'd seen him. We'd been out surfing with Johny and Eric at our favorite cove. Ben was in his neon green swim trunks, lounging on the sand and smiling up at me as I took the photo. He looked absolutely gorgeous with the sun sparkling off of the water rolling down his tiny frame. His hair was almost the brightest shade of pink I'd ever seen it get, and he was smiling softly and contentedly.

After I took the photo we had run out into the surf with the others and played for maybe half an hour. Then Ben had said he was running up to the jeep to get more sunscreen and would be right back. I never saw him again after that. When he hadn't come back after ten minutes we all had gone to look for him. There was no sign of him by the jeep, but on the front seat we had found a note that read "I'm sorry Andy, I just can't do this anymore. –Ben" and it was in his handwriting.

Eric and I had both shifted in our wolf forms and tried to track Ben while Johny had called our captain at the police station to tell him what was going on. We'd only been able to track Ben a few feet before the trail went cold in the middle of the dirt road that we had parked off to the side of.

After that I just remember panicking and eventually passing out. I woke up back in the mansion in my bed. The others had been downstairs discussing what to do. The next few days were hazy. We kept looking for Ben though, never giving up. Having the same roundabout conversations from earlier every single day. We tried every tracking spell we could come up with, talked to every person we thought could help, but none of it went anywhere. Two years passed with no sign of Ben. Two years without being able to see my husband.

I couldn't close my eyes without seeing him alone and scared somewhere. Ben had such a hard past, I could never begin to comprehend the things he'd told me he'd been through. He'd been born to two druggies who had sold him when he was three to pay for their next score. Ben had been turned into a sex toy for older men and women after that. He'd stayed in the whore house he'd been sold to until he was ten years old and the cops finally broke the place up. After that he'd been juggled from foster home to foster home until he was 15 and started doing meth and coke. The foster care system had then put him in a group home meant specifically for children with drug problems. Ben had managed to clean himself up and eventually got his high school diploma and went on to college to become a cop.

That's how I had met him. He was 17 and had just started school and I found him freaking out in a deserted corner of the library. For some reason I had felt compelled to go up to him and ask what was wrong. After about an hour I dragged it out of him that he was upset because of the fact one of the classes was dong a demonstration on piss tests for drugs. A little more coaxing and he had broken down and spilled his whole story to me. Eventually mumbling out that he had gone back to drugs and was afraid of getting kicked out of school, even though he wanted to stay here so bad. I felt really sorry for him; he sounded like he really wanted to fix up his life but just didn't know how.

The professor of the class Ben was worried about was one I acted as a student assist for and I managed to talk him out of making Ben take the test without telling him about Ben's drug problem. Ben had been beyond thankful and kept repeating the fact over and over again. Over the next few weeks we hung out a lot more, and after awhile I could see that Ben was starting to suffer from withdrawal just before Christmas break. I'd talked to Eric and we decided to invite Ben to stay with us in our apartment over break. It was partly because I wanted to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't take any drugs, but mostly it was because I found myself wanting to spend more time with him. He was such a sweet person, and hilariously funny.

I don't think Ben had ever had a real Christmas before that. I remember him tearing up after he tore open the elegant sketch book I had gotten him in attempt to squelch his habit of drawing on his class work. That was the first time we kissed. He smiled softly after he had opened the gift, then he leaned in and we kissed softly. The sweet moment was broken when Eric broke out in a fit of laughter and started rolling on the floor. But Ben had just laughed it off and came over to cuddle with me in front of the fireplace.

Eventually we all graduated in the same year do to the fact Eric and I had started our schooling late and Ben had started his early. Just a month before we graduated Ben had inherited a mansion from his grandparents up in the northern part of the state. He'd only met the grandparents once, and they were the only family he had ever had. But they were both wheelchair bound and suffering from dementia so they had never taken Ben in. After several days of debating the three of us decided to move up to the mansion and join the meager police force in the small town. It was there that we met J.C. and Johny who were struggling to keep the police force afloat with only the help of their captain. The two of them eventually moved in with us which meant the entire police force, minus our captain, was living under one roof.

It was amazing fun though; we all got to be extremely close. We worked odd hours with schedules that never matched up, but we made it work. Clubbing every Friday, almost always at the same little gay bar on the edge of town, and surfing whenever we could fit it in.

Just before his 21st birthday and about three months before he went missing Ben and I got married. He'd been so ecstatic when I'd proposed to him. He was worse then an energizer bunny on steroids for about a week.

"Andy, come back inside, it's pouring out." Eric said softly from the doorway. I jerked out of my memories to realize that it was indeed pouring, though I hadn't gotten wet due to the second floor deck above me. I nodded meekly and followed my brother inside, making it no farther then the kitchen table where I collapsed into a seat and rested my head on my arms.

"I can't take this, Eric. I can't take it any more. I need him back." I whispered.

"We'll find him, Andy. I promise we'll find him." Eric soothed, rubbing soft circles into my back in an attempt to calm me.


	8. Hint

Two years. Two years since Alec had up and vanished. Most of the anger had subsided since then. Once I actually sat down and thought everything out, I realized it just didn't add up, Alec leaving like that. Maybe if he had started pulling away from me before he vanished, it would've made more sense. But he hadn't. He hadn't pulled away at all, if anything we'd gotten even closer in the months before he disappeared.

"Hey!" The lady in front of me snapped her fingers right in my face several times. "I'm paying you to make this potion for me! You should be paying more attention." She was a young werewolf with all the sass of an upper class girl.

"For the last time," I growled, "The potion has to sit for a few minutes before I add in the last thing." I was so charging extra for her attitude.

"Well hurry up! I have better places to be then this dinky apartment of yours." She pouted and crossed her arms impatiently. "And do you have any idea how tacky that little wall of photos is? Honestly, I mean the guy isn't ugly or anything but a whole wall of photos?"

"GET OUT!" I thundered. That was the last straw, I was not putting up with this brat anymore. Not after she insulted me for having pictures of Alec.

"What?" She screeched, "I'm paying you, Bane. You can't make me leave."

"Wanna bet?" I hissed as I stepped up to her, using my height to my advantage as I loomed over her. She took a step back and then quickly turned on her heel and sprinted to the door.

"Fuck you, Bane!" She screeched. In a moment of anger I picked up the unfinished potion and chucked it at her as she cursed me from the doorway. Only a small amount hit her, but it was enough to cause several small, probably painful, burns.

"Well, look who has a temper today." Artemis chuckled as he stepped over the broken shards of the bowl the potion had been in and into my apartment.

"What the fuck do you want?" I was not in the mood for dealing with the High Warlock of Manhattan today, or any day for that matter. He was a man who had been caught in the dark side of the Victorian era, his cloths and mannerisms still screamed of it.

"Well, I was in the area and I thought I would drop by to say hello." He sat, unwelcomed, in one of my arm chairs. "That, and there is something I have been meaning to discuss with you. It is rather important."

"Well get on with it then." I grumbled as I took the chair opposite him.

"So, you still have not found any trace of, Alec is it?" He began.

"Get on with it, Artemis." I ground out.

"So impatient today, that is not very kind of you."

"Artemis, if you don't get on with it, I'm forcing you out of here in a much harsher way then that werewolf was forced out in." He just chuckled.

"You know," He sat forward slightly, pressing the tips of his fingers together. "I always assumed, you would look for him, no matter what. That you would drop everything to find him. And yet…here you are, a new apartment, still the high warlock… It is quite strange.

"Artemis, you don't know the half of what I've done to try and find him, so don't you dare accuse me of not looking for him. I moved my apartment because there were too many memories in the old one, and I kept my job because I felt my contacts that the job gave me could be helpful in finding Alec." By the end of my short tirade I was standing up with my fists balled at my sides.

"And yet, you still do not know where he is." Artemis was looking up at me through his eyelashes, clearly enjoying my anger. "Did it not occur to you to see if any one else had disappeared around that time as well? Because, if you had looked you would have seen that almost thirty shadowhunters disappeared from their families, with no warning at all, in that same week."

"What, what are you talking about?" Before I knew what had happened I was on my back, a knife to my throat and a very dangerous Artemis was leering over me.

"It has been two years, and no one has figured it out, where I took them. It has been fun, watching them all struggle to find their loved ones, their children. But it is getting boring, now that so many of them have given up. So I am going to give you a little hint, Bane, just to make my game a little more fun again. Every family has looked all over the surface of the Earth, and found nothing. So look somewhere else." Before I could respond, he'd vanished.

Part of me wanted to chase him down, but mostly I couldn't stop thinking about the "hint" he'd given me. "Every family has looked all over the surface of the Earth, and found nothing. So look somewhere else." Did that…did that mean he was underground somewhere? It was very common for tracking spells not to work if the person was far enough underground.

I'd always known that Artemis was a sick, twisted person with an obsessive need for creating and watching chaos. It wasn't the first time I had to deal with one of his 'games' as he put it. But this, if he'd told the truth about there being almost thirty people involved, this was his biggest game yet. And he'd mentioned children to, also something he'd never risked doing before.

After quite a lot of debating on how I would locate Alec I grabbed my coat and ran out the door, my fingers wrapped in the long silver chain of my necklace that held my engagement ring.


	9. The First Year

Week 1

Well, it's been a week now. I found this journal and a bunch of pencils in my bag and decided to use it so I have some way to keep track of time down here, because it's starting to get hard. We're still in the same building, and we've been doing pretty well. The sky is still the same murky brown color though, so we haven't been able to use the stars to gauge where we are. We haven't seen or heard anything from the people who broke off from our group that first day.

A couple days ago Taylor, Jeremy, and Paul set out to see if they could find anything. They should be back next week, hopefully they'll find something. I really want to go home, I miss Magnus so much.

Ben is still very depressed, and he's taken to not talking much, not even to me. There's only been one morning so far where he hasn't crawled into my bed during the night because of his nightmares.

Week 2

Well, Taylor, Jeremy, and Paul got back today. Sadly, they didn't find anything. No trails, no roads, nothing. It was just woods as far as they managed to get. We had a group meeting and decided that they would head out again in a couple days in a different direction.

We finally managed to figure out all the children's names and ages, though it took quite a bit of coaxing from Kim and I. There was Melisa who is six years old, Amy is eight, Adam is ten, Kristy is five, Carl is seven, Jake is eight, Jordan is twelve, Mark is the youngest at four years old, and Timmy is six.

As for Kim, she is thankfully a nurse which could become invaluable if we have to stay down here much longer. We've talked a few times, and she is sure that there is something wrong with Elizabeth, the young women who has been so distraught. She hardly leaves the women's room and she always looks like she's been crying. We're worried about her, but she won't talk to anyone.

Ben has now started to shadow me everywhere, but I don't honestly mind. I kind of like having him with me 24/7, it helps with how much I miss Magnus. He even crawls into bed with me before we even go to sleep now. We don't cuddle or anything, I think he just does it to know someone else is right there, not to have any type of physical contact.

Week 3

Well, our little three person search party has left again. We still have no idea where we are, and there hasn't been any sign that anyone is getting close to finding us. That voice from the first couple days hasn't come back yet either. The sky is sill overcast, even though it has yet to rain.

We found out the other day that we have running water, we just needed to fix a few pipes to get it to work which was easy enough with the crystal necklace Magnus gave me. But once we got the water running, a fight almost broke out about who would get to use the shower first. Jared broke up the fight and told the three people involved to take it up with me who got to shower when. Apparently I've given off the impression that I'm in charge, though I'm not quite sure how. Eventually we got a shower schedule worked out and everyone was happy.

Kim and Sarah also worked to put together a place to wash our cloths, and we're all in charge of our own while several people offered to help with the kids cloths.

Ben and I talk a lot now, he's easy to talk to and we have a lot in common. He reminds me of Magnus so much sometimes, but other times not so much. I woke up this morning with him curled against my side, it was a little awkward, but at the same time it was nice to wake up right next to someone again.

Week 4

The search party came back today, still nothing. Still no stars at night.

We finally found out why Elizabeth is so upset. She's almost nine months pregnant, she's managed to hide it because it doesn't hardly show and she's got a rather baggy sweatshirt. Kim coaxed it out of her that she's due in two weeks and that it's a girl. Kim and I found a small room for her to be in when she has the baby, if we aren't out of here by then. We dragged an extra cot in there and a few other things Kim felt were necessary.

Ian and Marty discovered at the beginning of the week that if we take everything out of our packs, they'll refill instantly with the same things. I examined the bags with magic, but didn't have enough to figure it out. We then called everyone into the cafeteria area and spent the day emptying the bags over and over to build up stocks of food in case whatever spell keeps refilling them ever runs out. We've all started to accept that we could be here for a long time.

I woke up this morning with my arms around Ben. I can't stop thinking about it, it makes me feel so guilty. I feel like I'm betraying Magnus and I hate it.

Week 5

We've given up on sending the search party out, at least for awhile.

The food is still good, we've managed to build up a good supply of rabbit and deer meat that we keep cold in the very small crawlspace of this building. It gets cold enough during the night that ice forms on the inside of the crawlspace, which creates a wonderful freezer. The rest of the building is heated though, but we've yet to figure out how.

Elizabeth is doing alright, she's opened up a bit now that her secret is out. We were talking and she told me that her husband is a mundane fighting in Iraq, and that she hadn't had the chance to tell him she was pregnant because she wanted to do it in person. Elizabeth's backpack, when we emptied it out a couple days ago refilled with, not the stuff that was in there before, but baby things. We're all a little wary of the bags now and we know for sure that someone must be watching us.

I've given up on feeling guilty about the fact that Ben and I are getting closer, I need the comfort. And I'm not the only one, several of the others have started to get much closer as well. We're all missing our families, we miss the comfort of another set of arms around us at night.

Week 6

Elizabeth had her baby last night, she's a beautiful and healthy little girl. Elizabeth named her Alexis, which shocked me a bit. But I don't really want to think about it right now, it's been a long day.

Ben has taken to calling me Allie, which I have to admit, I kind of like.

Week 7

Alexis is still doing fine, as is Elizabeth. Kim has been taking good care of both of them. Ian and Marty were even nice enough to build her a crib, those two are exceptional with woodwork.

Still no sign of the people that broke off from the group that first day, still no stars at night, still nothing but woods, still refilling backpacks, still heated building and still no explanations. It's easy to see that people are starting to give up now. And they all still treat me as the person in charge.

I've taken to sketching again, something I haven't done since I was little, just to pass the time.

Ben told me more about his family today, I really hope I get to meet them. And he's ecstatic about meeting Magnus. He also spent most of yesterday planning out my wedding, which I couldn't help but laugh at, it made the day very enjoyable.

Week 8

Ben kissed me, and I kissed him back.

I don't know what I'm doing anymore.

Week 9

Ben and I talked it out, we both know that we're with someone else, him married to Andy and me engaged to Magnus, but we realize that we really need each other right now. It's been over two months, we're starting to accept that we could be here for a long time and that we won't be able to get through it alone. We both realize this…this relationship will only exist while we're in this place, and that when we go home we'll go back to Andy and Magnus.

Well, I've discovered that living with Ian and Marty is akin to living with three year olds that have access to high explosives. They managed to create a ten foot crater just on the edge of the tree line using stuff they'd found in the woods and around the building.

Week 10

Ian and Marty, despite their constant destructive moods, are very good people. They've been using spare bits of wood, and things that appeared in their packs to make toys for the kids.

The food is still good, as is the water. But everything else is still the same, we still have no idea where we are.

Ben explained to me today how he is able to use a gun, even though he is a shadowhunter and guns don't work for us. Apparently Johny developed a type of bullet that instead of using black powder, uses very condensed magic. The only thing that needed to be modified was the bullet, not the rest of the gun. I can't help but find the concept fascinating.

Week 11

More of the same, nothing has really changed. Still no sign of being rescued.

Week 12

We had a campfire today, to celebrate Mark as well as Timmy's birthday. Ian and Marty made them each a new toy, and Taylor even managed to bake a cake big enough for everyone. It was the most fun any of us have had since we came here. The children all loved it.

Ben is still depressed about being away from Andy and the rest of his family, but he cheers up a bit when we're alone.

Week 13

It's all the same. Everything is still the same. The sky is the same damn sickly brown color, even though it never rains. The starts never come out. The packs refill every time we empty them.

I was never much a fan of the sun, but dear Angel I miss it.

Week 14

Same as always.

Week 15

Another campfire birthday party, this time for Melisa. We've decide we'll do it for all the kids. And we'll have a party around Christmas to, which is about ten weeks away I believe.

Week 16

Ian broke his arm at the beginning of the week, he fell out of a tree. It wasn't serious, and I was able to fuse the bone back together just enough with my necklace to make sure it heals right. Marty yelled at him for about an hour though.

Alexis is still doing good, she's such a sweet little baby.

Ben has decided it is the funniest thing in the world to ambush me with rubber bands. It's kind of fun though, it takes away some of the stress. We've got a little war going now.

Week 17

Ben's sick. We can't figure out what's wrong and nothing we do is helping. I'm really worried about him, he can't even make it out of bed anymore.

Week 18

Ben is still sick, but whatever it is, it isn't contagious because no one else has gotten sick.

Week 19

Ben is finally getting better, he still has a fever every-now-and-then, and he's still weak. But he is doing better. He told me today that stuff like this happens to him a lot, because of his strange mix of blood. His mother was half fey and half shadowhunter, his father was half mundane and half shadowhunter. The strange combination of blood didn't always interact well and it sometimes made him sick. Normally he took medication for it, but he hadn't been able to here since he didn't have it.

At least he hasn't had any more asthma attacks.

Week 20

Ben is still a little weak, but he seems almost back to normal now. That scared me so much, seeing him so sick. I hope it never happens again, I don't think I could take it. I can tell it really scared him to, he hasn't let go of me since he was able to get out of bed again. He's constantly glued to my side now.

Week 21

Well, we've started to notice that the weather around here never changes. It's always the same not hot, not cold temperature, the same humidity, the same overcast skies.

John and Derrick came up with a game of sorts. Apparently it's something they both played as kids in school, since they both went to mundane schools. Everyone drew a name out of a hat, and kept it secret. The object of the game was to shoot the person who's name you got with a rubber band. Once you shot them, they gave you the name of the person they're supposed to shoot. The last person standing we decided will get a week without having to do chores. My target is Sarah.

Week 22

Another birthday party, this time for Amy and Kristy who have birthdays only four days apart. They loved the toys Ian and Marty made them.

Week 23

Boring week, nothing happened.

Well, actually, one thing did. Ben and I went a little farther then kissing, not much, but enough that I wonder how far this could end up going.

Week 24

We're celebrating Christmas next week. Paul and Elizabeth, who have become the cooks of the group, told us they're going to make something special.

Ben and I went even farther and only stopped because we couldn't get Magnus and Andy out of our heads. Neither of us will say it out loud, but we do want to go farther.

Week 25

The Christmas celebration was great, everyone loved it. The special food was a couple of turkey's that Paul had caught. They tasted amazing after only having deer and rabbit for so long.

Ben and I talked again after the party about our, well, relationship. It didn't get very far before we started making out…and then, we slept together. Part of me feels horrible, like I betrayed Magnus. But most of me, most of me is just happy to be close to someone.

Week 26

Same old same old.

Week 27

I think the monotony is going to kill me.

Week 28

Found out today that Ben is only two weeks younger then me.

The assassin game we started is still going on. My target now is Elizabeth. Ben got taken out at the beginning of the week by Ian.

Week 29

More like week 229, that's what it feels like anyways.

Got taken out of the assassin game today, Jessie got me. I think there's only about five people left in the game. Once it's over we decided we'll start again, it's a fun game and it helps to pass the time.

Week 30

I had to watch Alexis in the middle of the week, Elizabeth wanted to go hunting and spend a little time to herself, she really misses her husband. Alexis is such a sweet girl, and she has the prettiest green eyes.

Week 31

I think everyone but Ben has given up on being rescued now. He's still completely sure that Andy will come find him. I know I need to talk to him about it, but I can't bring myself to do it.

Week 32

I talked to Ben today about Andy. I tried to get him to understand that even though Andy is looking for him, as far as we know, that doesn't mean Andy will ever find us. We've been here for around eight months, if they haven't been able to find us with tracking spells and all manner of other magic by now, they probably aren't going to find us. Ben cried and clung to me for the whole night.

Week 33

Ben is still upset by what we talked about, but he isn't mad at me.

Week 34

Big storm, no time to write.

Week 35

Fire.

Week 36

A lot of us are hurt.

Week 37

No time.

Week 38

No time to write.

Week 39

To busy to write.

Week 40

To busy to write.

Week 41

Not enough time to write.

Week 42

No time to write again.

Week 43

The first time we have some actual weather, it's a lightning storm that starts a forest fire. The storm happened in the beginning of week 34. It started a big fire and now a fair amount of the forest is gone as far as we can see and our building got scorched on the outside as well.

Ian and Marty were both burned pretty badly on their arms, they were out hunting when the storm started. They were both pretty touch and go for a few weeks. Jeremy was hurt the worst, with burns on most of his right side, he was touch and go until the beginning of this week. Paul, Elizabeth and Kim all had minor burns, but nothing serious. Ben and I each had a few burns as well, but thankfully none of the children were hurt.

Everyone seems okay now, and we've all started to breath normally again.

Week 44

We had a big party today to make up for missing Adam, Carl, and Jake's birthdays. I think the party was exactly what everyone needed after the fire.

Ben and I are still sleeping together, even though it makes both of us feel guilty.

Week 45

We picked the game up again last week. Paul was the winner as of this afternoon. Which means next week he has no chores. Once the game ended, we all drew new names. This time my first target is Taylor. We also put in a new rule that you aren't allowed to shoot each other with the rubber bands in the bedrooms.

Week 46

Well, I did get Taylor with my rubber band. But she got me back with a bucket of water in a doorway. When Ben saw me soaking wet he called me a "Very angry looking Allie cat." I can't help but laugh at the different ways he manipulates my nickname that he's given me.

Week 47

Well, despite our huge storm awhile back, the clouds still haven't broken.

Week 48

Turns out, Ben ended up getting me as a target. He snuck up on me when I was cutting firewood with an axe we found awhile back. Now I'm out of the game and he told me his next target is Jared.

Week 49

Ben has proclaimed to me that when he wins the game, which he is completely sure he will do, not only will he get a week off of chores, I have to do something special for him. Considering I've already been planning something special, I have no problem with it.

Week 50

We had a campfire party for Jordan at the beginning of the week. Ian and Marty made her a puzzle box with twelve different solutions, she loves it so much.

Ben is still standing in the game, only two other people left now.

Week 51

Well, Ben won the game today. Which he was absolutely ecstatic about. His hair and eyes shifted into the brightest pink I've ever seen them get when we aren't having sex.

He was still set on me having to do something special for him, and I told him I already had. I took him up onto the roof of the building, where we always go to be alone and showed him a portrait of his family I had sketched for him from the photo's in his wallet that he'd shown me. He cried and clung to me, saying "thank you" over and over again. He found a frame for the sketch, he tossed out the picture that was originally in it, and he hasn't stopped looking at the sketch since then. I'm glad I made him so happy.

Week 52

Dear, Angel…it's been a year. A whole year.


	10. The Second Year

Week 53

Everyone is still in a bit of shock that we've been here for a year. We've all been very quite all week, no one really knows what to say anymore. We miss our families so much, but I don't think any of us believe we'll see them again. Ben and I were talking and we think that maybe we should do something to cheer everyone up, a special party or something. We talked to Elizabeth about it and she's all for helping out. Hopefully just the three of us will be able to pull something together, I know everyone needs it.

Week 54

Well, the party was a success, everyone is in a much better mood. But I think it has more to do with little Alexis then the party itself. Everyone was sitting around eating roasted marshmallows and talking quietly, Alexis was sitting on blanket making a wonderful little mess all over herself. Ben was playing with her, and had gotten rather messy himself in the process. Alexis reached out to tickle him, and her gooey little hand got stuck to his shirt. She got an adorable little pouty look on her face, and then said her first word, "stwicky." Everyone started smiling and cuddling her after that, and she kept saying it over and over again, sticking her marshmallow covered hands to anything in reach. Almost everyone had at least a little bit of marshmallow somewhere on them after that.

Week 55

Next week is my turn to go out hunting again, but this time Ben won't be coming with me like he always does. He's been feeling sick again, and even though he wants to come with me he needs to stay here and rest. I really hope he doesn't get extremely sick again, it would kill me. Paul and John will be coming with me this time, we should be gone about two days, maybe three.

Week 56

I know Allie loves this journal so much, it's one of the things that keep him sane, being able to keep track of the time and everything. It's a pretty little thing, blue leather cover with an embossed swirling pattern. I know it would really upset him if he missed even a week writing in this, he can't stand not having something written down for every week. But I'm rambling now. I guess, I guess I should say what happened.

When Allie went out hunting with Paul and John, they got attacked by something. We still don't know what it was. Paul was dead when we found them, and Allie as well as John was just barely alive. We found them about twenty-three miles from the camp in a small clearing that had been torn to shreds. We don't think John is going to make it, his stomach is ripped open and there's a lot of internal damage. And Allie…we don't know if he'll make it either. His right arm is torn to shreds from whatever attacked them. We're really worried that it's going to get infected. Allie has always been the one to take care of us when we were hurt, he always used that necklace of his from Magnus. But no one else can use the necklace. Allie hasn't woken up since we brought him back, and he's had a fever as well.

I don't know what to do right now, I'm so scared that I'm going to lose the only person that's kept me sane in this place.

-Ben

Week 57

Allie is still sick, but he's woken up a few times. He's never been very coherent, but he's been awake enough to eat and drink. I'm still so scared that we're going to lose him, we already lost Paul, and John passed away this morning.

Everyone is terrified to go outside right now, and we refuse to let the children out at all. We still have no idea what attacked Allie, John and Paul. The fact that something in these woods could kill two fully grown, fully trained shadowhunters, and severely injure another terrifies us.

You know, I was reading Allie's other journal entries and I realized that he's been really blind to some things. He almost never mentions how everyone see's him as the leader of our little group. Everyone trusts him, comes to him to talk, all decisions go to him. Without Allie, we would fall apart. He keeps the peace between everyone.

And he's never mentioned why Elizabeth named Alexis, Alexis. Elizabeth did it because Allie was so kind to her and so helpful, because of that she named her daughter after him.

-Ben

Week 58

Allie is doing better now. He's still really weak, but he woke up enough to use the necklace to heal his arm almost completely. But he's really upset about John and Paul, I can tell he blames himself, but I don't know what to say to him.

We still don't know what attacked them, Allie doesn't remember anything.

-Ben

Week 59

Well, I can see that Ben took the liberty of filling in the weeks when I was sick, which I'm grateful for. I still feel like shit, and my arm hurts like hell, but I'm doing better. Ben and the others still won't let me out of bed though. But I need to write, even if my handwriting looks like crap because my arm is so messed up right now.

I've never felt as guilty as when I woke up and Ben told me that John and Paul were both dead. I know I should have protected them better. Everyone see's me as the leader, and yet I couldn't save them. I should have been able to at least keep them from getting killed.

But, in some ways that isn't even the worst part. When I was sick, I hallucinated that I heard Magnus talking to me, telling me everything would be okay. I honestly thought we'd finally been found, that Magnus had found us and taken me home. But then I woke up back in this stupid building. I don't know how much longer I can take this.

Week 60

I was finally allowed out of bed a few days ago, to celebrate Alexis's first birthday since we hadn't had time to yet. It was nice, getting back to the normal swing of things, but it just didn't feel right. I didn't feel like I was a part of it. I felt separate from all of them. Even Ben couldn't cheer me up like he always does, and he tried his hardest when he saw how distant I was being.

Week 61

Things are a little better now. I still feel distant from everyone, but not as much. I told Ben about thinking I'd heard Magnus, thinking we'd gone home. He talked me through it, helped me deal with it better then I had been. I don't know what I would do if Ben wasn't here.

Week 62

Alexis has added the word "silly" to her meager vocabulary and has started referring to everyone by it. She's also started calling Ben "wainbow" because of his hair, which he can change to any color he wants if he actually focuses on it. She's such an adorable little girl.

Week 63

Well, everyone is thoroughly confused now. We've never had one drop of moisture in this place until today. But it isn't raining. There is a single stream of water, about the size of a silver dollar falling from the clouds. It's been going for about three days now, and is about ten feet from the main door of the building. And it isn't fresh water, its salt water. No one is really sure what to make of it.

Ben and I were alone on the roof, watching the water falling, and he suggested that maybe we're underground, maybe under an ocean. It is very possible that, with the use of magic, we could have been put into a seemingly endless cavern under the ocean. With the right illusion spells, it could be very easy to create an "endless" forest.

Week 64

Well, the little stream is still going, and it's still salt water. It's carved a little creek that runs off into the woods now.

Week 65

Ben had another asthma attack four days ago. This one was even worse then the one he had that first day we met. He passed out completely and would've fallen if Ian hadn't caught him. Ben wasn't getting any air at all and it scared the shit out of me, seeing him so pale and his lips turning blue. He's fine now though, just a little scared. He refuses to leave my side at all, for fear it could happen again.

But this asthma attack made me realize something. There doesn't seem to be a limit on the amount of magic I can use anymore. What it took to deal with Ben's asthma attack is more then this necklace was ever capable of. I don't get it, and it's really confusing me. I want to talk to Ben about it, but he's got enough to deal with right now.

Week 66

Ben is still permanently attached to my side. I'm worried that because he's so stressed about the asthma attack he could end up having another one.

Week 67

Well, Ben is feeling better. Ian and Marty made him a wooden puzzle box with a few homemade sweets inside. Ben is quite easy to distract when there is the prospect of sweets.

Week 68

That little stream of water has gotten larger, it's about three times as big now.

Week 69

Well, I finally decided to tell Ben about being able to use more magic then the necklace could provide. He couldn't come up with any ideas as to how I can do it, but he thinks we should try and figure out exactly how much I can do.

Week 70

It's funny, even though we still celebrate the children's birthdays, none of the adults really acknowledge that we are in fact getting older as well. It only just occurred to me that I'm almost 23 now.

Week 71

Well, Ben and I decided that we are going to test how much magic I can do. We didn't have time this week, but hopefully next week we will.

Week 72

Ben and I did try to figure out how much magic I can do, but we couldn't figure it out. I tried some of the most complex spells Magnus had ever showed me, but they didn't tax my energy at all. In fact, they didn't even deplete the magic in the necklace. Ben suggested that maybe, somehow, I'm not using the magic in the necklace at all. Trying to think about it all now just makes my head spin.

Week 73

Well, that stream of water from the sky has gotten much wider now; it's around a foot and a half wide. And there are about three or four other little ones, just around our building. Everyone is really scared that we are in fact under the ocean and whatever ceiling is keeping the ocean out is breaking away. We all sat down together today and decided that because of my apparent ability to do any type of magic we should seal off the building completely, except for the main door. We decided to basically make the place waterproof, and turn the main door into something of a hatch. Personally, I can't help but think it might be a little excessive, but if it makes everyone else feel better then I'm fine with it.

Week 74

It's weird, I spent all week sealing off the building and never felt any type of exhaustion from it. And not only that, I was able to use spells I've never even heard of. If I wasn't so tired, I might try to figure it out, but not today.

Week 75

Mark, the youngest of the children next to Alexis was playing in one of the extra rooms today when he ran out crying. He keeps saying something about a shadow, but no one knows what he means because that's all he'll say. Elizabeth has been trying to calm him down with homemade ice cream and cuddles. Hopefully he'll be alright.

Week 76

Well, now we know what scared Mark so much because almost everyone, including myself, has seen it. It's a shadow, human shaped and about five feet, eight inches tall. We've seen it in rooms, darting along halls, but never on the outside walls of the building. The shadow never has an apparent source. The first thought that came to mind was a projection on the walls. But we looked everywhere and couldn't find any type of camera. There's still a chance it's a magical projection though, rather then an actual entity of some sort.

Week 77

I think our total number of salt water streams from the sky is up to about twenty now, at least around the building. That first one is maybe three feet across now, I had to put a silencing spell around it to keep the noise down.

Week 78

Ben broke down crying yesterday, it was Andy's birthday. He spent most of the day crying and cuddling up against me in bed.

Week 79

Ben is still depressed, he hasn't smiled once since he broke down last week. I hate seeing him so unhappy. I know he's never been truly happy down here, but he's always been happier then this.

Week 80

After over a year of knowing Ben, I've become very adept at reading his moods based on the color of his hair and eyes. The brighter pink, the happier he is. The closer to white, the more physical or emotional pain he's in. Shades of red and he's mad, shades of green and he's sick, shades of blue mean he's extremely upset about something. Ever since he broke down about Andy's birthday, his hair and eyes have been a very pale blue and nothing I've done has changed that. I'm really worried that this might have been the final straw for him, that he really, truly can't take any more.

Week 81

Ben has started to get very zoned out. We have to say his name four or five times to get him to acknowledge us, and even then he doesn't really pay attention.

Week 82

Ben finally broke out of that rut he's been in, at least a little bit. His hair has gone back to pink, though still a very light shade. But he doesn't zone out anymore, well no more then is normal for him. I'm still worried about him though.

Week 83

I've noticed that when Ben is upset about something, he's a lot more likely to attempt to tie me up when we have sex. I'm pretty sure we both would've faced some interesting questions had I not been able to heal the rope burns on my wrists.

Week 84

That shadow thing is still darting around the building, but that's all it ever does is dart around. It doesn't attempt to interact with us anyway. The children aren't scared of it at all now, they've even started a game of who can find it first everyday.

Week 85

Jordan has been teaching the other children origami. You can't walk five feet now without stepping on some random paper creature.

Week 86

Well, the backpacks have stopped refilling. Thankfully though we've managed to save up over another year's worth of supplies from our ritual of emptying all the packs several times a day, every day.

Week 87

Allie isn't feeling good, so he asked me to write something for him for the week. He's been stressing out so much, it's making him sick now. Allie has been trying so hard to figure everything out so we can go home, but he's pushing himself way to much. I hate that he's doing this to himself, but I don't know how to make him stop.

-Ben

Week 88

Well, I'll admit, I am stressing out a lot. But I didn't realize it was making Ben so worried about me until I read what he wrote last week. I hate that he's worried, but I don't know what to do about it. I need to figure out how to get us out of here. There's so much water falling on us now that the place has turned into a swamp. I'm starting to wonder if sealing up the building the way we did really wasn't as excessive as I first thought.

Week 89

Sarah and Elizabeth went out for a walk today and came back with some rather unsettling news. The animals in the forest are all dying, just dropping dead. There's hardly anything alive out there anymore. Some of us think that maybe the salt water is what's killing them.

Week 90

Everyone is uneasy. No one can sleep at night and the children refuse to be left alone. We can all tell that we won't be able to last much longer here, but we have no idea what to do about it.

Week 91

Everyone is stressing, big time. We've started to seal the main entrance every night, in case it floods.

Week 92

I keep trying to send out messages to Magnus, and Andy to. But it still isn't working as far as I know. I don't know what to do anymore.

Week 93

Ben is really scared, it's easy to tell. He can't sleep at night and he'll barely touch his food anymore. I want to cheer him up, but I don't know how because, honestly, I'm just as scared as he is.

Week 94

Ian and Marty tried to cheer everyone up by starting another assassin game. It seems to have worked a bit, but everyone is still on edge. My target is Jessie.

Week 95

I'm out of the assassin game, Jordan got me.

Week 96

The water is still streaming out of the sky, we can't even count all the little streams any more.

Week 97

Ben had a minor asthma attack a couple days ago, just from the stress of everything. It wasn't nearly as bad as the other ones that he's had, but it still scared him.

Week 98

Elizabeth has taken to teaching the younger kids. She has little sessions for all of them and teaches them reading, writing, and math along with various other things. She's been doing it for awhile now and she's quite good at it. Not only are the kids learning what they need to, they're being distracted from everything else that's going on.

Week 99

I've started to get some pretty bad headaches over the past few weeks. I know it's from stressing out so much, but I can't help it.

Week 100

Dear Angel, it's almost been two years now.

Week 101

When everyone realized it has almost been two years they all got very quiet. Some even started to cry. No one knows what to say.

Week 102

Everyone still seems to be in a daze from realizing it's been almost two years.

Week 103

One more week and we'll have been down here for around two years. I don't even know how to comprehend that. I sat down and just tried to think it out the other day, and I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that we've been here so long. So many questions come to mind when I try and think about it. How are Jace and Isabelle? How's Clary? Did she and Jace ever get married? Have kids? Are they all even still alive? What about my parents, what's happened to them? Did my family ever stop looking for me?

Does Magnus still love me? Does he even remember me? It's not like I was the only boyfriend he ever had, he's had hundreds. Could I really have been special enough to keep a place in his memory, let alone his heart, after disappearing for two years?

Week 104

Two years. Two whole years.

…we are never going to get home, not alive. I don't doubt that anymore.


	11. Meeting

"Andy, come on, you gotta get outta bed." Eric said quietly, his hand on my shoulder. I just shrugged off his hand and scooted away a bit. I didn't want to get out of bed, I wanted to stay right here, wrapped up in the blankets that still smelled like Ben because I hadn't slept in this room, our room, since he disappeared. All I wanted was to lay here for a little while.

"Andy, please, I know you're upset but you can't lie in bed all day. Ben would hate to see you like this and you know it."

"Hey guys, we have a visitor…" Johny said from the doorway of the bedroom before I could respond to my brother.

"Who is it?" Eric asked.

"Some warlock, I think he said his name was Magnus."

"What does he want?" I was quite content to just let my brother and Johny talk, I wasn't interested.

"Well…he said he was looking for his fiancé, some kid named Alec." Johny was shifting his weight back and forth nervously.

"We don't know anyone named Alec, or Magnus, though…"

"I know Eric, but…he mentioned Ben."

"What?" I leapt out of bed and raced towards the door, intent on getting downstairs and finding out any information this man had on Ben. I would beat it out of him if I had to, warlock or not.

"Whoa, hang on Andy." Johny caught me before I could get out of the bedroom.

"Let. Go. Of. Me." I growled.

"No, Andy. He doesn't know where Ben is, but he thinks that wherever Ben is he might be with his fiancé, Alec since they disappeared around the same time. Just come down stairs so we can all talk, alright?" Johny placated.

"Fine." I grumbled after a moment. The three of us walked quickly downstairs to find J.C. standing in a corner glaring at the man I assumed to be Magnus who was pacing near one of the couches. He was tall, maybe six foot six, black hair down to just below the top of his shoulders pulled back in a ponytail. His cloths were very high class, a tight blue shirt, well fitted dark blue jacket, black tailored pants and a pair of well shined boots. Around his neck was a silver chain with an elegant ring dangling in the dip of his collar bones. He had on light make-up around his eyes, several piercings in his ears and one on the left side of his lower lip.

"What do you know about Ben?" I couldn't help the rough tone of my voice.

"Nice to meet you to." He mumbled.

"What do you know about Ben?" I repeated. Magnus sighed and ran a hand back through his hair before responding,

"I think he may have been taken by the same man who took my fiancé two years ago. His name is Artemis, a very dangerous, very powerful warlock and he's just as sadistic as he is powerful. He has an obsession with playing games with people; games where it is very likely people won't come out of it alive."

"And what, pray tell, makes you think this bastard has Ben?" J.C. whispered, he was never good with strangers.

"Because a couple of weeks ago Artemis showed up at my place and told me he had my fiancé and that he had taken around thirty other people as well, including children, all around the same time. I started looking into it and found out the names of a fair amount of other people who had been taken. I've tried talking to their families… but they're all shadowhunters who won't listen to a warlock." Magnus explained.

"So what? You found us, not Ben or your fiancé. I don't see how this does you any good." I mumbled.

"Neither do I, honestly. But I'm out of ideas at this point." Magnus said.

"Well then why did you even come here?" I snapped.

"Because I think we have a better chance of finding the people we love if we try and figure it out together." He answered.

"Andy, he's right. We haven't had any luck finding Ben, we don't have anything to lose at this point." Eric said softly.

"Fine." I conceded after a moment.

After that we all sat down, Magnus told his story of how Alec had disappeared, and we told ours of how Ben disappeared. When he told us about the note he had found, there was no denying that this Artemis guy had taken Ben as well, the notes were exactly the same.

"So Artemis came up and told you he had them?" Johny clarified.

"Yeah, I've known him for a long time, we've had run ins before. When he gets board with his games, he tries to spice them up. When he was there he told me 'Every family has looked all over the surface of the Earth, and found nothing. So look somewhere else' which makes me think that everyone is being held underground somewhere." Magnus elaborated.

"Like a mineshaft, or cave?" Erin asked.

"Yeah, but I don't know how to search them. Even the most powerful tracking spells don't work if the person is to far underground unless you're right above them, and even then it's iffy."

"Well, lovely. We're exactly where we were fifteen minutes ago." I complained. Erin let out a long suffering sigh and shot me a 'behave' look.

"Andy's right. We still don't have any idea how to find Ben." J.C. backed me up, nothing like having the pessimistic, anti-social vampire come to your rescue.

"Whatever. I'm done with this shit." I stalked upstairs. I briefly heard Erin saying something along the lines of "I'm sorry, he isn't normally this rude."


	12. Story Telling

"Hey, Allie." Ben said quietly. He'd followed me up onto the roof after I left in the middle of dinner. I just needed a little space from everyone for awhile, but I was glad Ben had followed me.

"Hey." I smiled softly, gently wrapping my arms around him and pulling him into my lap.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just a little overwhelmed. It's been two years and two weeks now and I just can't wrap my head around it." I whispered as I looked off into the distance at all the streams of water falling from the still murky grey-brown clouds.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I can't believe it's been so long." He mumbled, resting his head in the crook of my neck.

"Ben, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Do you think we're going to get out of here alive?" I felt Ben tense in my arms, but he didn't pull away.

"I don't know anymore, Allie. I want to think that we will, but it's hard to believe it anymore." He answered eventually.

We sat together for a long time, just staring out into the distance. We didn't know what to say anymore, neither of us wanted to die down here, but at this point that seemed an inescapable outcome. If it was true that we were in some under ground cave thing, there was the possibility it would start to flood from all the water pouring in. And with the animals dying and the packs not regenerating, we were going to run out of food.

"We're having a campfire; you should come down and have some fun. You need the distraction." Ben said after awhile.

"Maybe in a bit. I can think of other ways I'd rather distract myself at the moment." I grinned. He just laughed and pulled gently pulled my face to his for a kiss.

"Not now, sorry. But everyone needs to see you smiling at this party, they look up to you and if they see you "happy" it'll help them."

"Aww. You're no fun."

"I'll make it up to you later, promise. Now come on, there's a party!" Ben pulled me towards the stairs. I just laughed and let him pull me along. We alighted down the steps a tad to quick and almost landed in a heap at the bottom. Ben grinned sheepishly and continued to tug me outside.

The campfire was already started and everyone was sitting around it laughing. The younger kids were happily playing in the dirt with each other and getting thoroughly messy. The atmosphere was still a little tense, but everyone did seem to be loosening up a bit.

"Alec! We made fireworks!" Ian and Marty said at the same time. They were both wearing the very large grins that everyone had learned to be wary of.

"How did you to make…you know what, I don't want to know. Just please do not set anything on fire." I shook my head playfully and sat down with Ben next to Jeremy and Elizabeth who were in a heated debate about something involving fruit. Taylor was sitting with Jessie and they were discussing the best way to deal with a pack of Ravener demons. Derrick, Jared, Kim and Sarah were laughing and talking about their families.

"So, Alec, can we launch our fireworks?" Ian asked eagerly.

"Oh hell no." Ben responded.

"Aww! Come on!" Both of the twins chimed.

"Just don't light anything on fire. And do not burn yourselves." I gave in.

"This will not end well." Ben pretended to try and hide behind me.

"It's all in good fun." I chuckled. "Besides," I let a little magic spark between my fingers, "I'm sure I can handle whatever chaos those two cause."

"Well, that is true."

We both watched as the two of them scrambled around, setting up various little boxes and fuses of some sort. It was slightly concerning that they'd managed to make this amount of explosives from the meager supplies we had and even more concerning was that I didn't think anyone had noticed them doing it. How their parents had ever put up with them and lived to tell about it was probably a very interesting story. But their antics were all done in an attempt to lift whatever bad mood everyone was in, which happened often, and their endeavors to cheer everyone up were appreciated.

"Johny and I were always in charge of setting up the town fireworks display." Ben said suddenly.

"They put the most hyperactive guy, and the devious warlock in charge of the explosives?" I laughed.

"Yes, yes they did. Albeit they don't know he's a warlock…"

"He's still devious, from what you've told me."

"Well, yes, that's true." Ben grinned. I just shook my head and tussled his hair playfully.

Ian let out a quick whistle to get everyone's attention. When everyone was watching he and Marty each bent down a lit several fuses before they scampered back to the camp fire ring. As soon as they had sat down several things shot into the hair and exploded into beautiful red and green sparks. The little kids were enthralled and the adults cheered as more shot into the air. The way the sparks reflected off of the streams of water created an otherworldly light show. It was probably the most amazing thing I'd seen in the two years we'd been down here. The grand finally was a large, multi-colored ball of sparks that zipped and darted around the sky. Everyone cheered loudly and Ben was grinning madly and bouncing around.

"See, it was a good thing we let them set off the fireworks." I poked him playfully.

"Yeah, I guess it was."

The next few hours were spent laughing and telling stories. Ian and Marty were the heroes of the night for the fireworks display. As much as we'd all enjoyed it, we were still wary to ask how they'd done it.

"Allie?"

"Hmm?" I was leaning against a log with Ben lying between my legs with his back on my chest and his head under my chin.

"Why did Magnus make you the crystal necklace? I've always heard they're near impossible to make, let alone get right."

"It's," I sighed. "It's complicated."

"Tell me? Please?" Ben turned his head to look up at me.

"Alright." I gave in after a thinking it over. "But let's get away from the group a bit." He nodded and followed me out of earshot from the group. We sat down against the edge of the building in the same position as before.

"Allie, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Ben said when I didn't start talking.

"I do want to though." I told him. "Magnus is one of the rare warlocks that weren't fathered by a demon but by another warlock, a warlock named Extinium. Extinium fathered several warlocks and witches in an attempt to create an army to take down the clave. When they didn't do what he wanted he would kill them and father another one, but only after he had killed the previous one. Eventually he fathered Magnus, but when he tried to kill him he didn't succeed. He tried over and over but Magnus always managed to escape and recover."

"I don't see what this has to do with you though." Ben interrupted.

"I'm getting there." I thwacked him playfully on the head for interrupting me. "When I was nineteen, a year after I met Magnus, Extinium came to try and kill Magnus again. He tried to lure Magnus in and get Magnus to do what he wanted by kidnapping and torturing me." Ben tensed up at this and his eyes went wide. I held up my hand to keep him quite. "He tortured me for a week before my brother and sister found me. I was completely out of it and I thought that they were just an illusion, so I didn't respond to them at all. They eventually got me back to the institute and Magnus's adopted older brother, Iakona, healed me." I'd mentioned Iakona to Ben before, so he didn't disrupt my explanation and question about him. "I was out for two or three days before I woke up. When I did wake up I started to freak out, the infirmary in the Institute seemed completely terrifying. Two many dark corners, too much space. It just freaked me out and I begged Magnus to take me to our apartment. He did and we stayed there for about a day." I paused, trying not to let the memories overtake me to much.

"Allie…"

"I'm fine, Ben. After that first day at the apartment I started to freak out again so Magnus and Iakona decided to take me up to their cabin in the Canadian forests. They thought I would feel safer there because Extinium supposedly didn't know about it. But things only got worse. I don't really want to explain, but I basically lost it. I got sick from lack of sleep and not eating right, and I was beyond paranoid about everything. Eventually Extinium did find us and he forced his way into my head with a spell, took control of my body and made me hang myself in the bathroom. Thankfully Magnus and Iakona got to me in time and cut me down, but it took them a long time to restart my heart. When they did, I still didn't wake up. They took me into the bedroom Magnus and I shared and waited for me to wake up. Eventually Kona passed out on the couch in the room. Magnus was so upset about everything, and he wanted revenge so bad that he left to kill Extinium while I was out cold. He set an alarm clock to wake Iakona up after he was gone so I wouldn't be alone."

"He just left you there?" Ben asked.

"He was upset and angry and scared and he didn't know what else to do. He saw Extinium as the root of all the problems so he went to kill him. He's admitted more then once that it was one of the stupidest decisions he ever made."

Ben nodded, "So what happened after that?"

"Well, long story short, Iakona woke up and I woke up shortly after. When Iakona found out where Magnus was he went to get him and told me to stay put at the cabin. I didn't listen to him and followed him through a portal to a clearing where Magnus and Extinium were fighting." I tensed up a bit, remembering the horrible image of Magnus covered in blood and torn up from the fight. "Eventually, Iakona killed Extinium and healed Magnus and we all went back to the cabin. We all slept for about three days straight, we were exhausted. When we woke up things were really tense. Iakona was mad at Magnus for running off and almost getting killed and Magnus felt extremely guilty for doing it. And I was still paranoid and freaked by everything. My nightmares were just as bad, if not worse. Iakona and Magnus still had no idea how to help me. Eventually Christmas rolled around and we were still at the cabin. I was extremely sick by then; I couldn't even really get out of bed. I remember Magnus walking in and giving me a little package, when I opened it the crystal was inside. He told me what it was and that it was his magic in the crystal and that he'd enchanted it so that only I could use it and only I could take it off, it could never be forced off of me. He said he did it so that I would always have a little bit of him there to protect me, to heal me. That was the first time I ever felt safe since Extinium had kidnapped me. That's why Magnus gave me the necklace." I finished up.

"I can't…I can't believe you went through something like that." Ben whispered, he wouldn't make eye contact with me and was drawing small patterns into the dirt.

"It's in the past now, and I've pretty much learned to live with it. I still have a bad dream every now and then, but they aren't horrible." I gently tilted his chin up so he was looking at me and gave him a quick kiss.

He smiled as I pulled away and opened up his mouth to say something, but before he could there was an earsplitting crack from above us. Everyone went dead silent, even the children, and looked up. Suddenly another crack resonated around us and several bits of rock fell from the sky and more water started to pour from above us.

"Get everyone inside now!" I shouted as I scrambled to my feet and back to the campfire. No one questioned the order and they all raced inside grabbing only the children and leaving everything else laying there. I shoved Ben through the door as more cracks thundered above us and water poured in from everywhere. Before I could get through the door I was yanked backwards and the door was slammed shut and disappeared, I was the only one left outside thankfully. I could hear Ben screaming my name from the inside and the others soon joined him.

"Hello, Alec." I spun around to find a man standing maybe twenty feet away, a tall man with brown hair that looked like he had been ripped out of the Victorian era. He seemed familiar, but I couldn't place him.

"Who are you?" I shouted to be heard over the noise thundering around me. The water was starting to flood and was already up to my ankles.

"Artemis, the high warlock of Manhattan, and the person who put all of you down here." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You know, I never expected you all to do so well down here. I was hoping for, I do not know, cannibalism or something. It would have been much more fun."

"Fun?" What the hell was wrong with this guy?

"Yes, Alec, fun." He hissed the last word and snapped his fingers. Before I could react I was picked up and flung roughly against the building, my back slamming into the concrete wall. Stars danced in my vision as I tumbled to the ground. The water was a foot deep now and I was completely submerged. I tried to move but I couldn't work passed the fog of pain from being slammed into the wall. I felt my lungs clench from lack of air and the white starts dancing behind my eyelids started to fade to black. Vaguely I heard Ben and the others shouting my name from behind the wall, and that was the last thing I heard.


	13. Familiar Magic

"I'm sorry, he isn't normally this rude." The man who had introduced himself as Eric said sheepishly.

"It's alright, I know how he feels." I sighed and ran my fingers back through my hair. So far I was having better luck with these people then any of the other families; they had actually let me in the house.

"So do you have any ideas on how to try and track them down?" Johny asked after a bit.

"Honestly, no. My brother, Iakona, has a way that might work but I've had less luck finding him then I've had finding Alec." It was true, I had been looking for Iakona since right after Alec disappeared but I hadn't been able to find him. I knew his map-book would be able to help, but I couldn't find Iakona anywhere. Normally it wouldn't be that annoying, he disappeared like this a lot, but with Alec missing I found myself getting more and more ticked at Kona for vanishing.

"What makes you think they're even still alive?" J.C. spoke up from the corner he was leaning in. He was still shooting me death glares.

"I don't know, maybe they aren't. But there is a chance they are and we have to keep looking until we find them or we know for sure that they're dead." I conceded.

"I'm going to go check on Andy." Eric excused himself and followed his brother up the stairs.

"You said that this Artemis guy even took children?" Johny inquired.

"Yeah, around ten from what I've been able to find out."

"Is he trying to gain something by doing this?" J.C. spoke up.

"I don't know, sometimes his games are just for fun other times they're for revenge. It could be he took some of these people just because they were there, or because he felt that they or their families had wronged him in some way." I elaborated as I flopped into one of the armchairs that Johny indicated with a wave of his had.

"Why is he so fucked up?" Johny questioned.

"Hell if I know, he's been like that for as long as I've known him." I shook my head.

"Alright, there has to be a way to figure out where he has them. Even an insane person has some method to what they do." J.C. took a seat by Johny who had sat across from me. When they sat next to each other I was a little taken aback by how similar they looked. They had the same jaw line, the same shape of the eyes, the same lips. It was a little odd, this being a warlock and a vampire. But I wasn't willing to inquire about it right now.

"J.C. is right, there has to be some way to at least narrow it down."

"You said you'd tracked down most of the families of people who went missing?" J.C. inquired.

"Yeah, why? None of the other families have been any help at all."

"Well, who was the last person taken?" J.C. continued.

"Why does it matter?" Johny looked rather confused.

"This Artemis guy doesn't sound like the type to put more effort then necessary into his games, I think he would try and make it as simple as possible for himself. If he planned on capturing so many people then he had to have already picked a place to take them once he had them while he gathered the rest of them. And if he was planning on grabbing so many people, it must have taken quite a bit of effort. If it was me, I'd want the last person I took to require the least amount of effort possible, I wouldn't want to have to take them far." J.C. mused.

"What are you, a cop profiler?" His conclusions seemed scarily accurate with how Artemis would act, and if he was right, then Alec might not be far from here…

"Pretty much, but that's beside the point right now. Who was the last person taken?" J.C. pressed.

"I…from what I've been able been able to find out…I think Ben was the last person to be taken." The two of them went silent as my words sunk in. If Ben was indeed the last to be taken, and J.C. was right in what he had assumed, then Alec and Ben might not be far from where we were now. The idea that they could be that close was tantalizing.

"Okay, so they could be close to here then? I mean, we've looked everywhere. We searched all the mine shafts that run all over the place around here, all the caves we know of up in the mountains and in the canyon." Johny said after a moment.

"Yeah, and if the guy created something using magic, wouldn't there be traces of the magic? I'm sure Johny or one of the other warlock's in town would've noticed." J.C. added.

"Not necessarily. There's ways to hide traces of magic, you can use masking spells or spells that just don't leave a trace in the first place." I explained.

"Gah, I hate this. Too much thinking involved." Johny flopped onto J.C. and was quickly shoved to the floor.

"So basically we still don't know what to do to find them?" J.C. asked after glaring at Johny for a moment.

"Apparently." I rested my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands. For a minute I had felt like I might finally be able to find Alec again, to hold him and kiss him. But once reality set back in I realized I was really no closer to finding him then I had been before.

"Well, why don't you stay here for the night, we've got more then enough room. Maybe if we all sleep on it we'll figure something out." Johny said after a long silence. I was completely exhausted after spending the day tracking down and attempting to talk to different families, so I just nodded and got up to follow Johny upstairs. J.C. remained on the couch, staring up at the high vaulted ceiling.

As we walked up the stairs I realized how truly huge this house was. The huge, sweeping stairs and expansive living room which had a fireplace that was taller then I was. And from what I'd see on the outside, it was at least four stories tall. The place even had a little elevator tucked near the stairs.

Johny led me down a long hall and opened the last door on the left revealing a bedroom that was probably bigger then my apartment. The entire right wall was glass looking out on the beautiful canyon that their house rested on the edge of. The sight was breathtakingly beautiful. I felt tears well up in my eyes when I realized how much Alec would've loved this, the quite and the serene beauty of it.

"Magnus, you okay?" Johny asked softly from behind me.

"Ye-yeah, this just made me think about Alec, that's all." I mumbled. He sighed and turned to leave only to run into J.C. who had approached unnoticed.

"Chief called, one of the locals called the station and said that there's something going on in Bayman's Cove." J.C. said quickly.

"Something going on? What do you mean?" Johny asked.

"It's draining." J.C. was shifting his weight impatiently.

"Draining? The tide's probably just going out." I said tiredly.

"No, the tide should be coming in. And either way, the tide going out wouldn't cause the water to drop fifteen feet, and there aren't any tsunami warnings. There haven't been any earthquakes big enough to cause one. Chief wants all of us to go out and check it out." J.C. elaborated.

"He can't expect Andy to go out there, not after Ben vanished from the same damn place." Johny said it loud enough that J.C. held up a hand to quite him.

"Chief is worried it could be something serious, he said something about cracks in the part of the ocean floor that was revealed. He needs all of us." J.C. explained.

"Cracks? Like from a cave in?" I whispered, my mind instantly going to our earlier conversation.

"Yeah, cracks like the ones in a cave in." He responded. I felt my heart clench at the thought that maybe we had been right, maybe Alec really was near by. We were silent for all of thirty seconds before we moved to race back downstairs.

"J.C., take Magnus and go to the cove I'll get Andy and Eric." Johny ordered as we sped down the hall. J.C. just nodded and I followed him downstairs. J.C. lead me across the house and into a large garage with maybe twenty cars and seven or eight motorcycles along with a fair assortment of other motorized toys. J.C. grabbed a random set of keys off of a rack full of them and pushed a button that caused a large, black hummer to beep. We raced to the car and he jumped into the driver's side and moved to pull out of the garage as soon as I was in the vehicle.

"Wait," I grabbed his arm to stop him from pulling out, "the sun hasn't set, you can't go out there."

"Yes I can, Johny made a spell a long time ago that lets me go into sunlight, I don't have time to explain right now." He pulled his arm from mine and backed out of the garage. I still couldn't help but hold my breath as he rolled back into the sinking rays of sunlight, but he didn't turn to dust and I gratefully let out the held breath.

"How in the world did he develop a spell to do that?" I needed to talk, I was nervous and my heart was trying to escape my chest.

"He figured it out about fifty years ago. Johny has always been a genius and he's invented a multitude of spells." J.C. mumbled as he took a sharp turn onto a rut filled dirt road after he had raced down their expansive drive way and a short ways down a well taken care of dirt road. With the speeds he was going and the horrible quality of the road talking became impossible.

After maybe twenty minutes of racing along we pulled up to a dusty clearing on the edge of a small cliff with the ocean stretched out ahead of us. There was one police car already there with a ragged, slightly over weight, middle-aged man standing by the car with a worried look on his face.

"Where's the others?" He said gruffly when we alighted from the car. "And who's this fellow?"

"Johny is trying to convince Andy to come, and you know Eric won't come if Andy doesn't. This guy is Magnus Bane, High warlock of Brooklyn New York; he's trying to find his fiancé who he thinks may have been taken by the same guy that took Ben." J.C. summarized quickly.

"And you're listening to the fellow, you of all people?" The man, who I assumed to be "Chief," questioned. J.C.'s response was cut off as he looked over the edge of the cliff where I was already standing with my mouth hanging open. The water had dropped at least thirty feet at this point leaving most of the bottom of the cove exposed. There was one large fissure running through the ground and sand as well as water was pouring into it as more and more rock fell away from the edges of the widening the crack. And it wasn't the only one; there were dozens of little fissures dotting the wet sand of the cove.

Together the three of us raced down the rickety wooden steps to what would've once been the edge of the small beech. We didn't risk going to close to the large crack and we just stood there, staring, and not knowing what to do.

"What the hell?" Andy exclaimed as he, Eric and Johny raced towards us. None of us knew what to say, so we didn't respond.

Suddenly I was aware of the waves of magic emanating from the crack, two distinct types of magic and I recognized both of them. One was Artemis's magic, and the other…was mine.


	14. Drowning

Drowning is a strange thing. I was semi-conscious, but I still couldn't move. I wasn't really sure I wanted to, actually. The water was freezing cold and the numbing sensation was rather peaceful. It felt good to be numb. No pain, physical or mental. I felt a slight tinge of guilt though, every time I heard Ben's muffled voice from behind the wall. But it wasn't enough to make me try to move. After two years of struggling to stay alive and keep everyone else alive it felt good to be numb, to just let myself slip away.

"ALLIE! ALLIE!" That was what I kept hearing, the others voices just jumbled together into a gentle hum. But Ben's voice stuck out to me.

"Allie! Please, Allie, say something!" He sobbed. At least, I think that's what he said. It was muffled through the wall and the water.

But all of his screaming and begging still wasn't enough to really make me want to pull myself out of the water; it still made a tinge of guilt invade my mind though.

"ALLIE! Damnit, Allie answer me! You have to, Allie, please! Don't you want to see Magnus again?" Magnus… Magnus… I would get to see him again?

Just the thought of him was enough to make me attempt to struggle out of the water. But I couldn't move right, it took everything I had to just lift my arm a few inches. As I started to struggle out of the water I finally became aware of the clenching feeling in my chest, the intense need to breath. I don't know how long it took but my head finally broke the surface of the water which had gone up considerably since I had gone under.

I choked and struggled to stand, using the wall as support. I couldn't move right, I was still so numb.

"Aww, I was hoping you would drown." Artemis sighed. He hadn't moved and was just standing there with his arms crossed and his long coat billowing about him in the frothing water. I didn't bother to respond as I gasped for air, no matter how big of a breath I took it felt like it wasn't enough. I could feel my heart thudding agonizingly slow in my chest and it terrified me to feel it beat so lethargically.

I could still hear Ben and the others, but I couldn't find the strength to respond to them. The numbing of the water wasn't a good feeling anymore, it was excruciating now, and the water was up to my chest.

"Well, maybe you still will drown." Artemis chuckled darkly as I slipped down the wall. I clenched my eyes shut and shot the first spell that came into my head, a spell for fire. Artemis fell back into the water as the fire shot towards him. He screeched when it burned his left arm. "HOW! HOW?" He screamed as he prepared his own spell. I couldn't move fast enough to counter the wave of water that came crashing towards me. It slammed me against the wall and I felt my head crack against the brick. My vision danced again as I struggled not to go under. But my efforts were in vain and I slipped back into the murky water.

I struggled to get back up, but the water was over my head now and I didn't have the strength to swim no matter how hard I tried. I was crying, I could feel it despite the water engulfing me. I didn't want to die, not anymore. I wanted to get out of here; I wanted to see Magnus again. Just having him hold me again, I wanted that so bad.

I could feel myself fading as my chest clenched even tighter in a desperate plea for air. Holding my breath was almost impossible now, I couldn't do it much longer.

Eventually I couldn't control it anymore and I gasped for air, even though there was no air to be had. I gasped and choked, unable to stop despite the water flowing into my lungs. I made another desperate attempt to surface, but I couldn't manage it. I was terrified. My thoughts started to fade as I fell into unconsciousness. I couldn't focus, couldn't form a complete thought.

Cold…

…Numb.

Don't want to die…

Ben…

…Alexis.

Ian and Marty…

Elizabeth…

Everyone.

Magnus…

Magnus…

Magnus…

Arms around me…?

Being pulled…

Sand.

A frantic voice…saying….something…

Slowly I became more and more aware of what was going on around me. I was on my side in the sand and there was someone next me, one hand around my arm the other stroking my face. Another person was behind me and was pressing their hand firmly against my back. I felt a small jolt of magic go through my chest and I started to cough violently, water spilling from between my lips. I continued to cough and retch as the water was forced back out of my lungs. But even when the water was gone I couldn't quite catch my breath, and my heart was still thudding way to slow. I was still terrified.

"Alec, Alec its okay, baby." I was picked up and cradled against someone's chest…Magnus? I heard a snap and my soaking cloths were replaced with a warm blanket. I struggled to open my eyes. I needed to see him, to see that he was really there and this wasn't in my head. I'd imagined him last time I was sick, after all.

Finally my eyes cracked open just enough for me to make out Magnus's panicked expression. His hair was longer and was in disarray, his makeup was smeared and his eyes were sparkling with tears.

"Magnus." My voice was weak and scratchy and it hurt to talk.

"Alec." He sobbed and clutched me tighter to his chest, burying his face in my hair as he gently rocked me and ran his hand along my back, the other hand was tangled in my hair. I sighed softly and curled into him. I knew he was real now, that this wasn't a dream. Two years without Magnus and only dreaming of his touch, I knew this was real. The true feel of his arms around me had started to fade with being apart for so long, not that I'd ever realized until now when his arms were encircling me again.

I was aware of other voices around us, but I hadn't paid attention to them until now.

"Ben, o'god, Ben, I love you." Someone was saying. I was vaguely aware that it was probably Andy, even if it didn't quite make sense to me that he was here.

The other voices were harder to make out, but I was relieved that I at least heard the familiar tones of everyone who I had spent the last two years with. Magnus was mumbling softly into my hair as he rocked me. I felt so safe in that moment, so safe and so happy. I could feel my heart falling back into it's normal rhythm as I slowly warmed up.

"Magnus, we need to get him somewhere warm and get his body temp back up, it's already below ninety-five degrees." An unfamiliar voice said from behind me. Normally I would've flinched away from the unknown person but I felt so safe with Magnus's arms around me that I didn't really care. "J.C.'s already got the heat cranked in the Hummer."

"Okay." Magus wrapped one arm under my legs, the other around my back and gently lifted me from the sand. He paused for a minute before letting out a shaky sigh and starting to walk. I cracked my eyes open and looked up at him. He looked worried and wouldn't take his eyes off of my face. When he saw me open my eyes he smiled slightly and softly kissed my forehead. I smiled back and let my eyes slip shut again as I tucked my head against his neck.

Just before I closed my eyes I caught a brief glimpse of the man walking next to us, I assumed he was the one who had been talking earlier. The most I could make out through my half closed eyelids was a shock of bright blue hair.

I was content to remain half awake listening to Magnus's breathing, to his heartbeat. The gentle sway of his walk as he carried me up a long set of stairs was extremely relaxing, but I didn't want to fall asleep yet. I was vaguely aware of Magnus getting into what I assumed was the Hummer, but he kept me cradled in his arms. The car was unbelievably warm and I sighed in contentment.

"Alec, sweetie, you need to rest." Magnus whispered against my forehead as he gently kissed it again.

"But, the others…" I mumbled, not quite able to get my entire thought into words.

"They're fine, everyone is safe. Johny, J.C. and Eric got them out while Andy and I were getting you and dealing with Artemis." Magnus assured. I was confused that mentioned Ben's family, but I couldn't focus enough to really think about it.

"Artemis?" I mumbled.

"The man who was attacking you. Please rest Alec, I promise you that everyone is fine. We're taking them all back to the mansion."

"Magnus?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"I love you." I muttered.

"I love you to baby, so, so much." He leaned down and kissed me softly and I fell asleep with his lips pressed against mine.

* * *

I woke up warm and more comfortable then I could remember being in ages. I felt a large comforter wrapped around me and a pile of plush pillows beneath my head. There was a pair of what felt like sweatpants clinging loosely to my hips as well as a large sweater and a warm pair of socks. I could feel Magnus pressed against my back and wrapped as close to me as possible. His arms were around my stomach, one leg draped across mine and his breath was tickling the back of my neck.

After awhile of just lazing there with my eyes closed I opened them to see where I was. I was met with one of the most amazing views I had ever seen. An entire wall of dark tinted glass revealed a snow covered canyon illuminated in moonlight that stretched on as far as I could see.

"I knew you would love this view." Magnus whispered against my shoulder.

"It's amazing." I breathed. "Where are we?" I added after a moment.

"I'll get to that, how are you feeling?" He asked, a slightly worried tinge in his voice. I rolled over so I was facing him.

"I feel fine, Magnus. I'm still a little tired, but nothing hurts and I can breath fine." I assured him.

"Okay." He sighed softly. I pulled him in for a kiss, pressing my lips softly against his. He responded immediately and tilted his head to deepen the kiss. We were both content to just press our lips gently together. His hands ran gently along my arms and back, mine doing the same to him.

We lay like that for several hours, just softly touching and kissing. Our eyes stayed open staring into the other's, rememorizing what we saw there.

"You never did tell me where we are." I said after awhile.

"We're at Ben's mansion in northern California." Magnus gave a quick explanation of how he had found Ben's family and then how they had found Ben and me along with the others underneath the cove. And he explained Artemis as well; how this had been a twisted game he cooked up. But his explanation of Artemis and his game was brief; he ended it saying he would explain more later.

"And the others, everyone is okay?" I asked. I was worried that any of the others had been hurt, especially the children.

"Everyone is fine. That building kept out all the water and didn't flood. Johny, J.C. and Eric were able to get everyone out through a portal. They're all downstairs getting checked out and calling their families."

"Okay." I gently pulled away to sit up and go downstairs and see them.

"Whoa, where do you think you're going?" Magnus demanded softly, wrapping his arms around me once I sat up to keep me from leaving the bed.

"I need to see them Magnus, I need to see that they're all okay." I looked straight at him, hoping he would understand.

He chewed his lip for a moment, a nervous habit he had, before he sighed and gave in. "Alright, but just for a minute. You almost drowned and you had hypothermia, you need to rest."

"Thank you." I smiled and moved to get out of bed. Magnus followed me, keeping one arm around my waist. I was grateful for the support when I stood up and found myself to be quite unsteady on my legs. Magus huffed softly as I struggled to find my balance; he looked like he wanted to pull me back into the bed. After a moment I was steady enough to make my way to the door of the room.

Magnus helped me down a long hall and over to a small elevator. Ben had mentioned installing the elevator after Andy got in a car accident and needed to be in a wheelchair for a month. The elevator flowed smoothly down to the main floor and we stepped out into an expansive living room filled with people. Before I could examine every face a small figure ran forward and wrapped their arms around me.

"Allie! You're awake." Ben said happily.

"Yeah, I'm awake. Are you okay?" I gave him a quick, one armed hug before he pulled back. I felt a tinge of guilt, having Magnus's arm around me and my arm around Ben. But I wasn't going to bring that up right now.

Ben was practically bouncing and he was grinning so wide it looked like it hurt. Andy chuckled and walked up behind Ben, wrapping his arms around him. Ben's five feet of height didn't even make it to Andy's broad shoulders.

"I'm fine, everyone is fine!" Ben exclaimed loudly. Andy chuckled and whispered to Ben to quite down a bit. Ben grinned sheepishly.

The next few minutes were spent exchanging hugs and assurances with everyone, and everyone was indeed fine, including the children. After I had seen everyone Magnus pulled me into the empty kitchen. He helped me over to a chair and kissed me softly before straightening up.

"What do you want to eat? I'll get you anything in the world." He sat on the table looking down at me as he stroked my hair out of my eyes.

"Hmm," I considered, "Chocolate chip pancakes, and some fresh fruit." I said after a bit. I had missed chocolate and fresh fruit more then most other foods.

"I can do that." Magnus smiled and snapped his fingers. A large plate of pancakes and a bowl of my favorite fruits as well as a large glass of my favorite tea appeared. I dug in so quickly Magnus laughed and tussled my hair.

I finished the food quickly and was happy when Magnus lifted me from the chair and wrapped his arms back around me. I sighed softly and rested my head against his shoulder. Gently he ran his hands along my spine, carefully working out the knots he found. I found myself becoming more and more sleepy as he continued his ministrations.

"Time to go back to bed?" He chuckled. I just yawned widely and nodded. Magnus wrapped his arms tightly around me as I stumbled my way back to the elevator and to the room we had been in. I collapsed gratefully on the expansive bed and feel asleep quickly, curled against Magnus.


	15. Reading

Suddenly I was aware of the waves of magic emanating from the crack, two distinct types of magic and I recognized both of them. One was Artemis's magic, and the other…was mine. How the hell could my magic be emanating so strongly from down there? Even if Alec was there, there was no way the necklace I had given him could create this much magic.

"My God, what the hell is this?" Johny whispered.

"I don't know." I threw my hand out and cast a detecting spell to see if I could tell what was going on.

"Well?" Andy said once the spell completed.

"There's a huge cavern down there, I can't even tell how big. Right below us is a building filled with people, and there are two people outside the building." I mumbled, casting another spell to see inside the building. Andy let out a strangled sob when he saw Ben in the small mirror like surface that had appeared when I cast the spell. I recognized Ben from the pictures adorning the mansion. He had tears running down his face and was beating against a wall and screaming along with the others.

Alec wasn't in the building, which meant he was outside of it, probably fighting Artemis. I shifted the focus of the spell to outside the building just in time to see Alec break the surface of the churning water and gasp for air. He was shaking and didn't look like he could hold himself up for much longer.

"Fuck, what's the plan boys?" Chief looked at each of them. Andy took a deep breath before responding,

"Johny, take Eric, Chief and J.C. through a portal and get those people out of the building safely. I'll go with Magnus to get Alec."

"Andy…" I was shocked that he chose to go with me.

"No, Ben is safe right now; he isn't the one drowning and being attacked. You take care of Artemis; I'll get Alec out of there." I smiled weakly and nodded, amazed that he was doing this.

Johny and I both opened semi-permanent, two sided portals. They would last for maybe fifteen minutes and we could go back through them once inside the cavern without having to open a new one.

"Be careful." Andy gave his brother a quick hug before stepping through the portal after me. I had taken care to open the portal well above the rising water level, so we had to drop a bit once we stepped through. We splashed into the water just as Artemis through a wave of water towards Alec. I screamed, but I don't think he heard me.

Andy shoved me towards Artemis as he fought through the water to Alec. I felt my magic surging through my veins, strong despite the water surrounding me. Then again, if the water hadn't been there I probably would've lost myself to the magic.

"Well! I take it you figured out my hint. Apparently not quite fast enough though," Artemis chuckled darkly. "Your boy toy just drowned."

I didn't give him the pleasure of a verbal response. Instead I silently formed the words of a spell for pain and aimed it at him. He convulsed once before managing a shielding spell. I growled and attempted to tear down the shield, but it was hard, the water was up to my shoulders now. If I went completely under I wouldn't be able to do any magic and I couldn't try to swim and do Magic at the same time.

Artemis laughed loudly, the chilling sound reverberating around us before he grinned and vanished. I turned to look for Andy and Alec and saw Andy heaving a very limp Alec through the portal. I slugged my way back to the portal and followed them.

I found Alec laying on the beech, not moving and not breathing. Andy had left him with Johny and Johny was trying to revive him. I stumbled to them and fought my urge to cry as I brushed my fingers along his deathly cold face. His face was tinged with blue, as were his fingers, his hair which had grown much longer was tangled around his head and he still wasn't breathing.

Johny pressed his hand against Alec's back and Alec started to cough violently, his body convulsing with the force behind the retching. The water poured from his lips, dampening the sand.

Even when the water stopped flowing from his lungs, he continued to shake. I quickly picked him up and replaced his soaked and tattered cloths with a warm blanket and held him to me. His pulse was weak, scarily weak, from the cold water.

"Alec, Alec its okay, baby." I soothed as I ran my fingers through his hair to dry it. Johny worked quickly to cast several warming spells and look over Alec completely when he realized I wasn't quite capable of it at the moment.

Suddenly Alec's eyes fluttered open just slightly and the corner of his mouth twitched up just slightly.

"Magnus." His voice was scratchy and it sounded like it caused him some pain to talk. But despite the roughness of his voice didn't mask the sheer relief in his tone, nor the love there. I sobbed and clutched him to my chest, rocking him gently. I had him back, he was safe in my arms again. Never in my life had I felt this much relief, this much happiness. Just holding him again, having him curled against me was something I had begun to think I would never have the privilege of feeling again.

"Magnus, we need to get him somewhere warm and get his body temp back up, it's already below ninety-five degrees." My heart clenched at Johnny's statement. Alec wasn't out of this yet, he was still suffering from sever hypothermia and possibly other things. "J.C.'s already got the heat cranked in the Hummer."

"Okay." I nodded and wrapped one arm behind Alec's knees, the other behind his back and made sure the blanket stayed securely wrapped around him. When I stood I felt how light he was, not concerning so, but enough that it was noticeable. I let out a shaky sigh before walking quickly, but carefully, up the rickety wooden steps and to the Hummer. On the way, Alec's eyes fluttered open again. I forced a small smile and kissed him gently on the forehead.

I got in carefully, keeping Alec cradled in my arms. He was still shaking, though slightly less now. And his lips and fingers were still tinged with blue. Alec sighed softly as the warmth of the car penetrated the blanket.

"Alec, Sweetie, you need to rest." I whispered to him.

"But, the others…" He mumbled, his eyes cracked half open to look up at me.

"They're fine, everyone is safe. Johnny, J.C. and Eric got them out while Andy and I were getting you and dealing with Artemis." I assured him. He needed to rest.

"Artemis?" Alec mumbled.

"The man who was attacking you. Please rest, Alec, I promise you that everyone is fine. We're taking them all back to the mansion." I implored him to fall asleep.

"Magnus?"

"Yes, Sweetheart?"

"I love you." He muttered softly.

"I love you to, Baby, so, so much." I leaned down and placed a soft kiss against his lips and I felt him fall asleep underneath me. I moved to place a kiss on his forehead and stayed there for awhile, my lips pressed against his still chilled skin. After a few minutes I pulled away and went to work with healing his frostbite and giving him a full exam. He was slightly underweight, and his right arm was scared and looked like it had been torn to shreds. But he didn't have an new injuries, other then a few cuts and scrapes.

J.C. was working to tape off the cliff above the cove with "DANGER" signs and caution tape while Andy and the others worked to get everyone into the large van Eric had ran to get. I had seen him shift into his wolf form and dash off just before I got into the hummer. Ben was clinging tightly to Andy, but he was looking at the hummer with a very worried expression. I used a simple spell to write the words "He'll be fine." In floating blue sparks in front of Ben. He sighed softly and nodded, burying his face in Andy's shirt.

All the other people were standing in small clusters; some were holding the younger children. One of the girls didn't look like she was old enough to have been in the cavern with the others, unless Artemis had taken her way after he took the others. Either that, or one of the women had been or had gotten pregnant.

After everyone was loaded in the large delivery van Eric had brought, Andy and Ben came and got in the Hummer, Andy in the drivers seat.

"He really is gonna be okay?" Ben peaked over the seat from his position of being tucked under Andy's arm.

"He'll be fine; he just needs a little rest." I assured. From the way Ben looked at Alec it seemed like he might have feelings for him. I was a little uncomfortable with the idea that Alec may have been with Ben in the last two years, but at the same time I understood it. They'd been kept like animals in that place for two years, they would've needed the comfort another person could bring. Then again, maybe I was just reading too much into it. I would just have to wait and see.

I rested my head on top of Alec's and leaned against the door of the Hummer as we rumbled back to the mansion. I was so relieved that I had Alec back in my arms, that he was alive and relatively unscathed. But I couldn't get out of my head that Artemis had escaped, that he had gotten away unscathed.

When we got to the mansion I carried Alec inside and laid him down in the room Johny had shown me earlier. The bed was huge; it had to have been custom made. I put Alec down on the edge on top of the soft comforter and quickly dressed him warm, comfortable clothing I had taken out of my closet at home.

Once I had tucked him in I just sat and looked at him for awhile, taking in the differences in him. He seemed to have aged more then just two years. His face was worn down; it had a permanently exhausted look to it. His hair hung down several inches past his shoulders and had lost its healthy shine; he had it tied back with a small piece of grey cloth. The cloths we'd found him were tattered and worn, ripped then sewn back together. It was the same with everyone; they all looked worn down and exhausted from what I had seen, even the children.

After awhile I lay down with him holding him close to me so I could feel his heart beat. I knew I needed to call his family, to tell them he was alive, but it could wait a few hours. After a little while I dozed off wrapped around Alec.

* * *

I helped Alec stumble back to bed after he had eaten. I couldn't help but smile softly when he fell asleep instantly. Seeing him downstairs, when everyone came up to him, it was strange. They all looked at him with admiration and respect. It was odd because Alec had never been one to lead, he enjoyed following even though he did make a good leader. And the way Ben had come up to him, I was sure there was something between them.

My musing was interrupted by the door to the bedroom cracking open and Ben peaking his head around.

"Can I come in?" He asked softly.

"Yeah." I stood from the edge of the bed and walked to the sofa in front of the fireplace so we could talk. He smiled and followed me choosing to curl up on the recliner.

"I thought you might want to read this." Ben held out a small blue journal. The cover was embossed and the pages worn. "It's Allie's journal, He wrote in it every week we were down there, or he tried to anyways, sometimes I wrote in it for him if he was busy. The journal helped us keep track of time."

I took the journal from him, brushing my thumb across the cover, it was a beautiful journal. "Thank you, Ben."

"You're welcome, Magnus." He sighed softly and paused before he continued. "Look, I'm not going to lie to you Magnus, there's no point since I gave you that journal and Allie wrote about _everything_ in that journal."

"What do you mean?" I had a feeling I knew where this was going.

"I mean that Allie and I slept together, a lot. We were both lonely and we missed you and Andy so much. We needed away to get away from everything that was going on down there, and we found that way in each other. We both agreed that it would end whenever we got home, and he still loves you more then anything and I still love Andy." Ben kept eye contact with me the entire time, he never wavered in what he was saying. I could see now how Alec could've found comfort being with Ben, he was a good person and I couldn't help but feel a small amount of affection for him myself, he'd helped Alec survive the last two years.

"Thank you, Ben."

"For what?" He looked a little confused.

"For being honest with me, for one, and for helping Alec survive the last two years. He went through a lot of shit before this happened and I don't know that he could've gotten through this without having someone there with him."

"We'll, you're welcome then." He stood up and left quietly, probably going straight back to Andy. Once he was gone I turned off the lights and lit the fire before I curled up on the couch with blankets and pillow's to read Alec's journal.

The first few entries started out hopeful, Alec seemed like he honestly believed they would be able to go home soon. It was apparent by the third entry that Alec had indeed been viewed as the person in charge. When he mentioned Ben, and how much the got along I couldn't help but smile slightly, I was happy Alec had someone to talk to.

The fourth entry seemed like a bit of a turning point, it answered the question of the youngest little girl I'd seen and it showed that everyone was starting to give up being rescued. The mentioned packs were probably Artemis's doing, if he could keep them alive longer he could play his game longer.

I couldn't help but feel a small bit of satisfaction when I saw that Alec had felt guilty for being with Ben, but I quickly pushed that satisfaction from my thoughts. Alec probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for his relationship with Ben.

The fact that there had been other animals down there confirmed the fact that Artemis had wanted them to believe they were in a real forest. And the fact that their packs had refilled with what the needed meant Artemis had been watching them closely, at least in the beginning. When I saw that the pregnant woman, Elizabeth, had named her child after Alec I was shocked, I didn't really know what to think of that. Apparently everyone endeared him even more then I had first thought.

The journal entry for the eighth week was the shortest so far, and it was obvious that Alec was confused and probably upset when he wrote it. But his confusion seemed relatively gone by the next entry. Alec had always been able to keep a level head, to think things through from every possible angle and come to the best conclusion. It's one of the things I love most about him.

I chuckled at his description of Ian and Marty, considering they were always mentioned together I assumed they were the twins I had glimpsed earlier.

His entry for week ten, and his description of Ben's gun peaked my interest in Johny. He was just a child compared to me, and yet Johny had created some amazing spells. I would have to talk to him some more when I got the chance.

When Alec mentioned the campfire parties, I smiled softly. At least they'd been able to have some fun down there, despite how hard things were. And Alec and Ben's little rubber band war was amusing, to say the least.

The entries for weeks seventeen and eighteen had tear stains splattered on the page. Alec had obviously been extremely worried about Ben and upset that he was so sick. When I saw Alec's explanation for Ben's sickness it became obvious that Ben probably was sick quite often. Having too many types of blood in one person, it was never a good thing.

The little rubber band game that everyone played sounded fun and it was mentioned several times. I'd heard of it before but never played. I would have to ask Alec to tell me more about it.

It was a little hard for me to read the entries about Alec and Ben, but I managed it. It hurt to know that they had slept together, but the fact that he still mentioned me made it a bit easier to bear.

I was sad when Alec mentioned talking to Ben about believing that Andy was going to come. If Alec was trying to let Ben down gently that they might not be found, then Alec had given up completely.

Even though Alec was right there on the bed, curled up with a small smile on his face, I couldn't help but feel a small bit of fear for his life when he mentioned the fire and then didn't write anything for weeks. I was relieved when he finally wrote that everyone survived the fire with only a few injuries.

I had to admit, the nickname Allie was rather cute, and Alec seemed to love it and the shenanigans they all managed to get into were rather amusing.

When Alec mentioned being able to make Ben so happy with just a drawing, I smiled. It was good to see that they had found little ways to make each other happy. But my smile disappeared when I saw how lost he seemed to get after they had been there for an entire year.

When I read Ben's entry about Alec getting attacked I felt my heart drop. I placed the journal on the couch and strode over to Alec wrapping my arms around him tightly. I needed to feel him, just hold him for a little while.

"Mmm, hey Magnus." Alec mumbled sleepily, looking at me through half closed eyes.

"Hey." I pressed my lips gently against his forehead.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm alright, I'm just glad to have you back. I've missed you so much." I whispered. He just smiled softly and leaned up to press his lips against mine, wrapping his arms around me as tightly as mine were around him.

"I love you." He breathed softly.

"I love you to." I kissed him softly. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything, Magnus, you know that."

I pulled away just a tad, sighing softly. "Ben gave me your journal to read…" I hoped he would pick up on what I was implying.

"Right…" He sighed and ran a hand across his face and into his tangled hair. "Magnus, I still love you. I _never_ stopped, and I _never_ will stop. What happened with Ben, that was …stress relief I guess would be the best way to put it. I do care about Ben, but nowhere near as much as I care about you." He assured. "I proposed to you for a reason, Magnus." He turned his hand to let the light glint off his ring before he sat up and un-strung my ring from its chain around my neck.

"Alec…" He was turning the ring softly in his hands.

"Magnus, I still love you. But I can understand if…if you don't want to wear this ring anymore because of what I did with Ben. I did pretty much cheat on you after all." He wouldn't make eye contact with me.

"Alec, Baby, you didn't cheat on me. I can't even begin to imagine what the last two years were like for you, especially with everything that happened before. I'm glad you had Ben there to help you through that. I'm not going to lie and say that you sleeping with him doesn't bother me, but if it's what helped you get through the last two years…then I'm thankful for it." I placed my fingers under his chin and tilted his head up so he was looking at me. "And as for that ring, I have no reason not to wear it."

"Really?" He sounded unsure.

"Really." I pressed my lips against his. He kissed me back before he smiled against my lips and pulled away slightly.

"Well, in that case." He slid off the bed and onto one knee, my ring on his outstretched palm. I felt my heart flutter and the air leave my lungs, just like when he had first proposed. "Magnus, will you marry me?"

"Ye-yes." I choked out, tears welling in my eyes. He smiled softly and slid the ring onto my hand then bent to kiss each knuckle before kissing his way up my arm. I let my eyes roll back at the feeling of his lips ghosting along my skin and up to my own already swollen lips. When his lips pressed against mine he wrapped his arms around my back and leaned me back until I was laying on the bed and crawled on top of me and never breaking contact.

"I love you." I murmured.

"I love you to, always." He smiled and flopped over to curl next to me. I smiled back and wrapped him in my arms. It didn't take long for both of us to fall asleep under the glow of the fire.


	16. Reunion

I awoke to the sound of a shower; the place next to me on the bed was empty but still warm. Alec hadn't vacated it very long ago. Lazily I rolled over to get out of bed, remembering a second to late that getting out of this bed involved a very large drop. Well, at least the carpet was soft I thought to myself. I stood up and stretched my lean frame sighing in relief as my joints all popped.

"I was just about to come wake you up." Alec murmured from the doorway of the bathroom. He was leaning against the doorjamb, his arms crossed lightly over his bare chest and the leg closest to the doorjamb tilted in front of the other. A small smirk graced his features.

"Mmm, really now?" I sauntered playfully over to him, a similar smirk on my face.

"Yes, really now." He said teasingly. "You didn't expect me to take a shower without you, did you?"

"That would have been horrible! Your poor hair needs so much help." I fingered the frayed strands between my fingers. Alec laughed, the sound was slightly deeper then I remembered but still just as enticing as before.

"Yes, it would've been the end of the world had I tried to take care of my 'poor hair' all by myself."

"It would've been absolutely tragic." I grinned, happy that we had fallen so easily back into our playful banter.

"And what exactly are you planning to do to help my 'poor hair'?"

"Hmm, well it definitely needs a _very_ good wash, with _very_ good products. And you definitely need a trim." I mused. "I do like it this long though, so _just_ a trim. If you don't mind."

"Just a trim is fine, I kind of like it this long as well." He smiled. Dear God he was gorgeous. "Now then," He leaned up to kiss me softly, I vaguely noted that he had gotten a few inches taller. His eyes were about level with my nose now, rather then my chin. "Shower time." He pulled me gently back into the bathroom.

I couldn't help but gape when I looked around. The bathroom was bigger then my bedroom at home. One corner held a gigantic spa tub, there was a double sink with a long counter, a large glass encased shower, and best of all a large vanity table with its own set of lights hung above it.

"Yeah, extravagant isn't it?" Alec chuckled. "Ben always told me his house was huge, but I never imagined that _this_ was what he meant."

"How does he afford this place?" I wondered.

"Well, he inherited it from his grandparents and the house was built by them. They got filthy rich off of owning a few casino's in Vegas. And all the money they left behind, which was a shit load of cash, goes to paying whatever bills they have." Alec laughed slightly. "Johny also isn't adverse to using magic to get out of paying the bills."

"I love this house."

I let my eyes rake down Alec's body now that he had stripped himself of his cloths. He just rolled his eyes as I inspected him. He was leaner, some weight had definitely been lost. His musculature was more defined and his skin even paler then it had been before. I left his right arm for last, walking over and gently took that hand in mine. I lightly traced the three thick scars that went up the length of his arm.

"Does it still hurt?" I asked quietly.

"No, it doesn't hurt. I can't bend my elbow as much now though." Well, at least he was being honest with me.

"Do you want me to get rid of some of the scaring for you?"

"Hmm, maybe. Not now though. Right now I want to take a shower with you." He playfully yanked my boxers, the only thing I was wearing, off of my hips and let them fall to the floor.

"Oh, I guuuuuuess we could take a shower." I let myself be tugged inside the glass enclosure and into the warm spray. For awhile we just stood there, holding onto each other and kissing lightly.

"Magnus?"

"Hmm?"

"I was thinking, maybe we could stay here for awhile. Ben's offered more then once…and I, I don't know if I can handle being back in the city yet." He spent the later part of his statement staring at the drain in the floor of the shower.

"Alec," I tilted his head back up to mine. "I have no problem with staying here as long as you want. Besides, I really like it here. It's so beautiful."

"Okay." He let out a relieved sigh and gave me a quick kiss.

"Magnus, have you called my family yet?" He asked when he pulled away a few moments later.

"No, I was tired last night and I thought you might want to call them yourself."

"Have they changed?" Alec asked after a few moments of silence.

"Well, Jace is still in ass, Isabelle still sleeps with any guy she makes eye contact with, Clary is still a klutzy little artist, your mother is still strict, and your father somehow still manages to put up with all of them."

Alec chuckled at my description of his family. "Alright, well what _has_ changed then?"

"Clary and Jace are married and have a son, his first birthday is today, actually…" I trailed off when I saw Alec's eyes widen slightly.

"They have a son?" He whispered.

"Yeah, he's adorable. Curly blond hair and big green eyes, he has his mother's smile."

"What's his name?" Alec had a small smile adorning his face now.

"…Alexander." Hu…that was two kids named after Alec, strange… "Jace really missed you, more then he would admit." I added.

"Well, I'll have to call them as soon as we're done showering then. I wouldn't want to miss my nephew's first birthday."

I smiled and kissed him while reaching for the body wash. I maneuvered him out of the spray and started to massage the soap into his skin. He sighed softly and leaned into me as I worked my fingers down his back. Slowly I slid down onto my knees to work the soap along his legs. He groaned quietly as I kissed the length of his thighs.

When I was satisfied that I had gotten all the skin on his legs (and worked him into a thoroughly aroused state) I stood up and turned him back into the spray, watching the soap wash away down his sculpted body. The entire time I was gently stroking the outer side of his thighs, enjoying the occasional shiver that ran through him.

"Mmm, Magnus how long do you plan to torture me?" He mumbled, leaning against the wall.

"As long as you look this godly." I whispered in his ear, nipping at the lobe.

"Well, I guess this is going to go on for awhile then, isn't it?" His face, already flushed from the heat, turned several shades redder at his bold statement.

"Oh yes, it's going to go on for a loooooong while." I grinned evilly as I stroked him, just once.

"Magnusss…"

"You're adorable when you whine." I snickered as I gently pushed him to sit on the small bench in the shower. He complied easily, letting his legs fall open in invitation. But I wasn't going to give in just yet. No, I enjoyed watching him squirm too much. I grabbed the body wash again and gently washed his feat. I enjoyed watching him jump as I lightly ran my finger along the soles of his feat. It was one of the very few places on his body that was ticklish, and I enjoyed taking full advantage of that.

"You know, I really want to hate you right now…" Alec mumbled.

"I take it you aren't succeeding in that endeavor?" I quirked an eyebrow.

"No, not really." His head was leaning against the wall, his eyes closed.

"Hmm, I'll have to try a little harder then." I mused. He cracked his eyes open to look down at me, glaring playfully. I grinned as he watched me, letting my fingers dance up his legs. He tried to keep his expression even and unaffected, but he wasn't doing to good at it. Alec lost all semblance of control when I wrapped one hand around the base of his cock. He arched slightly when I twisted my hand as I pulled it up his length.

I watched his face closely, absorbing all the expressions that flitted across it as I moved my hand. He was so extraordinarily beautiful. His blue eyes were hidden by half closed eyelids and thick eyelashes, but I still caught glimpses of the little pieces of ocean glass every-now-and-again.

I leaned down, flicking my tongue against the tip, enjoying the jolt it sent through him and the soft moan it elicited. I rolled my head forward to take him in my mouth. With one hand I held down his hips while I bobbed my head, doing all the things I knew he loved, dragging my teeth a bit, swallowing hard when I pulled him in deep.

Above me Alec was moaning softly, his hand tangled in my hair. He truly looked like a god right now, his sculpted body tense and the warm water trailing down his body as well as creating a warm steam around us. I pulled away just long enough to murmur a spell to slick my fingers with warm oil. Wrapping my mouth back around him I slid one finger inside, enjoying his sounds of pleasure when I quickly added another and started to stretch him out. But I didn't stretch him to much, he liked it to sting just a bit. I wondered if he was a little to into pain because he was a shadowhunter (it was a common thought, though I never brought it up), but I forgot the thought as soon as I pressed inside him.

He groaned underneath me, tangling both hands in my hair and pulling me down for a rough kiss. I obliged happily, letting him ravage my mouth and tug on my hair as I thrust into him. He was chanting my name softly in between kisses, completely gone in ecstasy.

I slid my hand down between us and slid a finger inside of him as well. It was something I'd only done once or twice, but I knew he loved it, loved the friction. And it felt damn good to me to.

I felt him tense around me and I started to move faster, more erratic, as I felt myself coming close to bliss as well. I changed the angle just slightly and pressed into the spot that made him arch back and moan loudly.

A few more thrusts into that same spot and Alec was shaking beneath me, his head tossed back as his cum coated both of us. One more thrust and I was shaking just as much. When we were both spent I pulled out and slid to the floor of the shower, pulling him with me. He curled up in my lap, his arms wrapped around me.

"I love you." I whispered into his damp hair.

"I love you to." He leaned up and kissed me. After several lazy moments of kissing and enjoying the still hot water, I snapped my fingers causing several bottles to appear on the bench. Alec rolled his eyes and obligingly moved out of the spray so I could work on his hair. I couldn't help but grin at the fact that I had become so predictable to him, at least with this kind of thing.

Selecting one bottle I squirted a generous amount in to my hand then rubbed it into his hair working carefully to coat every single strand. He sighed softly, enjoying the feeling.

"You need to shave to, love." I said as I waited several moments before leaning him back to wash his hair out. "Then again, you look kinda adorable with a little scruff…" I mused.

"Oh, I do, do I?" He looked up at me, his head still tilted back under the spray.

"You do." I gave him an upside-down kiss.

"Well, I'll consider that when I do get around to shaving."

The rest of the shower was spent with me washing Alec's hair with a multitude of products, and then giving it a quick trim before washing one last product into it. We both stepped out of the warm shower reluctantly, shivering at the rush of cooler air.

Alec moved to the sink, taking a razor with him that I had conjured up. I myself went to the vanity table and covered it with my favorite products. I hadn't gone full out with my appearance since Alec disappeared, and I planned to make up for that. I stared with my favorite black kohl then smudged on some dark blue eye shadow with purple around the edges and a coat of silver glitter. After I had applied a generous amount of mascara I went with a simple, shiny lip gloss, one I knew was Alec's favorite because it tasted like apples.

When I was satisfied with my face I moved to my hair. It was so long now that I couldn't spike it so I went with something akin to what the lead singer of Tokio Hotel always did (a wonderful band, I greatly enjoyed their music); a shit load of volume with streaks of outrageous color. I applied the blue and purple with a simple spell then went to work at adding the volume. It was hard, but it was so worth it.

I grinned happily at myself in the mirror before I decided on what I would wear. After a bit of careful deliberation I snapped myself into an outfit from my closet at home. It was a dark purple button up with a high collar, a snug silver vest, black skinny jeans with silver threading and neon purple boots. The outfit was accented with a silver sequined belt that had a rainbow target for the buckle as well as a generous amount of jewelry dangling from my neck, fingers, wrists and ears.

"Nice belt buckle." Alec snickered. I turned to face him, he had finished shaving long ago and was dressed in the tight (but not skinny jeans tight) black pants and the sleeveless button up black top I had given him. He had shaved his face almost completely, leaving only a small amount of scruff on his chin, and it looked damn good on him. His hair had taken back much of its healthy shine, and I was proud of myself for succeeding in that endeavor, and he had most of it pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. I swept my eyes over him appreciatively, enjoying how good he looked.

"You know you love the belt buckle." I teased.

"Yeah, I do." He rolled his eyes and walked over to me, wrapping his arms around my neck and giving me a quick kiss. Reluctantly I let it end and we wandered out into the hall, hands entwined. We ran into Eric who was just walking down the spiral steps that led to the third story and then the finished attic of the large house.

"Hey…Eric, why does this closet smell like chlorine?" I asked as I passed the hall closet near his room. The smell of chlorine was so strong; I was surprised I hadn't noticed it sooner.

"Well," Eric smiled as he opened the door to reveal the last thing I had expected, a water slide. Or the top of one anyways. "Let's just say that Johny and Ben are NEVER allowed to get drunk unsupervised. Ever."

"You're kidding me?" Alec said in between laughs. "Where does that thing _go_?"

"It goes to the pool in the basement which is also a result of that same night we left them alone with rum and whiskey." Eric elaborated as he closed the closet.

The three of us walked down the huge grand staircase together to find everyone spread out around the living room on various phones, all calling their families. Ben was curled up with Andy on the couch, talking happily. I was slightly taken aback when I saw that the pink streaks in his hair were even brighter, as were his eyes, and both were _glowing_ just slightly.

"It's because he's part fey, the color of his hair and eyes changes with his mood." Alec whispered in my ear. Well, that was definitely an interesting trait. What was with this family? Ben had glowing hair and three types of blood (and just barely made it to five feet tall if he stood really, really straight), Andy and Eric were both werewolves even though only Andy had been bit, Johny was a genius warlock for his young age and his brother was a vampire. Oh yes, a _very_ interesting family.

"Allie!" Ben said happily from his perch on Andy's lap.

"Hey, Ben." Alec smiled.

"Come on, I wanna talk to you." He said eagerly as he stood up, pulling Andy with him towards the kitchen. Alec and I followed at a slower pace then Ben's hyperactive bounce.

"So, what is it that you wanted to talk about?" Alec asked as he grabbed a large green apple from the bowl on the table and bit into it happily. Alec's hand was still clasped in mine and I pulled him towards me so that his back was pressed against my chest, my arms wrapped loosely around his waist.

"Well, I wanted to ask again if maybe you would want to stay here and live with us for awhile." Ben looked like an eager little puppy waiting to be given a treat.

"Actually, yeah, we both want to stay for awhile. Magnus and I talked about it this morning." Alec told him. Ben jumped up happily and gave Allie a tight hug which somewhat resulted in him hugging me as well.

"Hu," Andy tilted his head to the side with a playful smirk. "I can see why you two slept together, you're adorable."

"Ha! You're just saying that because you want us to sleep together again and let you watch." Ben shot back teasingly, his hands on his hips. He ended by sticking his tongue out playfully.

"How could I not want to watch that? You're both hot as hell and the idea of you together is rather enticing." Andy smirked.

"Hmm, maybe we should let them do it then…" I grinned down at Alec. I had to admit, I didn't like the idea of him sleeping with Ben alone, but the idea of all four of us… well that put some rather pleasant images in my head. I'd only been able to convince Alec into a threesome on one occasion with that guy Jinx. But Jinx had been a stranger, and Alec knew Ben so maybe it would take less convincing.

"Oh great, now you two are teaming up on us." Alec said as he wiggled out of my arms.

"Hey, Alec!" Ian and Marty chimed from the entry way to the kitchen. They both wore devious grins and had their hands behind their backs.

"What are you to doing?" Alec narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Before any of us could react all four of us were covered in a web of silly string. Ian and Marty were roaring with laughter as I snapped the web away. As so as he was free Alec shot forward and tackled both of them to the floor before wrestling the silly string from their hands. He made sure to empty both cans on their heads before he let them up and tossed the cans in the trash.

"Nice you two, very nice." Ben snickered.

"Have you two called your parents?" Alec asked as he helped them back to their feet.

"Yep. They're on their way," One of them started.

"I bet they can't wait to get their loving sons back." The other finished.

"Their sons, yes. Their son's pranks, probably not as much." Alec corrected playfully.

"Have _you_ called _your_ family?" Ben asked.

"I was just about to." Alec answered him. I smiled and handed him my cell phone. He nodded his thanks and stepped onto the back porch, away from the chatter of the inside of the house. I followed him out as Ben and Andy walked back into the living room. We sat together on one of the stuffed chair's adorning the porch, the one near the koi pond. Alec stared at the phone for a moment before smiling and dialing Jace's number. The phone rang several times before Jace picked it up.

"This must be damn good if the high and mighty Magnus Bane is calling me at noon, because last I checked you didn't even consider rolling out of bed until around four in the afternoon." Was Jace's way of answering the phone.

"Sorry to disappoint you Jace, but it isn't Magnus." Alec laughed.

"Dear Angel, ALEC?" Jace exclaimed after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, Alec." He smiled softly.

"Are you okay? Where the hell are you?" Jace rattled off several more questions before Alec managed to cut him off.

"Relax! I'm fine and completely safe; I'm with Magnus in northern California." Alec told him.

"Northern…what the hell are you doing there?" Jace sounded rather confused, and a little peeved.

"I'm enjoying the fact that I'm no longer being held captive by a vindictive warlock." Alec was leaning back against my chest and I was softly playing with the hem of his shirt as he talked. "Can your phone get picture messages?" He added as an afterthought.

"Umm, yes, why?"

"Well I'm going to hang up and send you a picture of where we're at then, and Clary can open a portal for you." Alec told him.

"Oh, alright, that works."

"Oh, and Jace?" Alec said before he hung up, "You better bring my nephew, I want to say happy birthday." He hung up before Jace could answer and pulled up the camera to take a quick picture of the porch. Once it was sent we waited for his family to appear. Alec sat up, managing to somewhat disguise the excited look on his face.

Isabelle was the first through the portal and before she could even completely appear Alec had jumped up and wrapped her in a tight hug. She laughed and hugged him back. Jace came through next and joined the tight hug. Clary was last with baby Alexander on her hip. Maryse and Robert had retired to Idris several months after the baby was born so they would have to be contacted later via fire message.

"Oh, my, god! Alec you look so different!" Isabelle said once she pulled away.

"I do?" Alec quirked an eyebrow.

"Only a bit, love." I stepped up behind him, kissing the top of his head lightly.

"So, this is my nephew, hmm?" Alec turned his attention to the squirming child in Clary's arms.

"That he is." Clary smiled, handing baby Alex over to his uncle. Alec took him happily, smiling at the little guy. It was an adorable sight.

"Happy birthday, little guy." Alec grinned.

"Oh great, now he's got two gay uncles to corrupt him." Jace quipped.

"Shut it, shadowhunter. If anything's going to corrupt him it's his father's ego." I shot back.

"Oh, can't you two just play nice for once?" Isabelle gave a long suffering sigh.

"No." We both answered at the same time.

"Where _are_ we?" Clary asked now that she had actually taken the time to look around. At her small outburst Isabelle and Jace took the time to look around as well, both of their mouth's falling open at the sight that greeted them.

"We, are at a friends' house." I answered.

After a short conversation where Alec gave his family a basic outline of the events of the last two years (Jace and Isabelle both growled when they heard that Artemis had gotten away) we all walked back inside to find everyone laughing happily with their families. I expected Alec to smile when he saw his friends so happy. But he didn't, he frowned and sighed sadly.

"Alec, what's wrong?" I shooed his family out into the living room so I could be more alone with him.

"I wish we could've brought everyone home." He whispered.

"Alec, what do you mean?" I asked worriedly.

"The first day we were down there, five people broke off from our main group. Mike, Jeffery, Zach, Erica and Amanda. I never wrote about it in my journal, or told anyone about it, but Jared and I found all of them dead of starvation on one of our hunting trips." He sighed softly, "And we lost John and Paul, they were killed by the… _thing_ that attacked us and gave me the scars on my arm." Alec's tone implied that he knew exactly what the _thing_ was, but I didn't press it.

"I'm so sorry, baby." I wrapped him in my arms, gently stroking his back as he rested his head on my shoulder.

"It's not your fault. At least as many of us survived as did." He pulled away after a bit, putting on a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Come on; let's go meet everyone's family." I nodded and let him pull me out into the crowd of people.

We first walked up to a man who was introduced as Derrick. He looked in his late twenties and his arms were wrapped happily around a petit Chinese woman who was covered in runes. She was introduced as his wife, Coral. Alec smiled and gave the woman a quick hug before moving on to talk to the others.

Next we went to Ian and Marty who were being playfully chastised by a very elderly couple for having silly string in their hair. Ian and Marty introduced them as their grandparents; they hadn't lived with their real parents since they were very young. Alec smiled and blushed as the grandparents thanked him thoroughly for keeping their boys safe.

The next man we greeted appeared to be the oldest of the people who had been held captive and was cradling a brunette shadowhunter in his arms. The woman smiled and sat up and gave Alec a kiss on the cheek, thanking him for bringing her husband back in one piece.

Jeremy looked about the same age as Alec, but his arms were wrapped around a boy that had to be his son, he was an exact miniature of Jeremy. Alec and I both grinned and gave the excited little boy a hug. Apparently his mother had died in labor so Jeremy was the only family he had left. The child had been staying with friends for the past two years.

"Alec, I like you to meet my husband, Damien." A woman, who Alec introduced as Elizabeth, beamed. She was the mother of the little girl named after Alec. Her husband was dressed in a mundane army uniform with his little girl his arms. She was squealing happily and playing with her father's hat. Her cute brown hair was in little pigtails and she had on a pair of child's overalls and a white t-shirt, the socks had been lost somewhere.

"Awec! Dis is ma daddy." She said happily, waving her little hand at Alec.

Damien chuckled and held his hand out to Alec, "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. Thank you so much for taking care of my wife and little girl for me." Oh yes, the man was _definitely_ military, very, very military.

"Just Alec, no sir necessary." Alec laughed as he took the hand and shook it. We talked with them for several more minutes before moving on to see the others.

Jessie was next; she was wrapped in her mother and father's arms crying happily. Both of her parents hugged Alec tightly saying thank you repeatedly. Alec had given up on trying to not have people thank him, so he just settled for a smile and a nod.

Kim and Taylor were off on their own, neither had any family and they were planning to find a house to rent together, and Kim was going to train Taylor as a nurse. We left them chatting happily after Alec had introduced me.

Sarah was the last adult we were introduced to, she was happily hugging a ten year old girl in a wheelchair. The little girl had been in a bus crash on the way home from a field trip and it had robbed her of both of her legs. But she seemed happy enough as she hugged Alec, thanking him for bringing her mother home safely.

Last we moved to the children who were all playing together on the floor as their parents talked. When they caught sight of Alec the parents all came and hugged him like everyone else had. Some were even tearing up as they thanked him.

"They worship you, all of them." I chuckled once we had pulled away from the crowd a bit. Alec's own family was milling around with the others, picking up more bits of info about what had happened.

"Apparently more then I thought, if the way their families greeted is any proof to go on." He agreed.

"Well, from what I've overheard you deserve the praise. It sounds like things would've been a lot worse if you hadn't kept everyone together." I smiled warmly at him. Alec opened his mouth to reply but was cut off when Johny stood on the coffee table and whistled to get everyone's attention.

"Alright, now that everyone is happily back with their families, what do you say we all go out on the porch and have a little barbeque?" Johny grinned. Everyone cheered happily at the idea and moved to the back porch. Johny and I worked together to create a warm 'bubble' around the porch and a good part of the yard. The snow in the bubble melted away and the grass sprouted as the BBQ flared to life with burgers and hot dogs as well as all manner of other barbeque-able food appeared on it. After just a few minutes it looked like a beautiful summer day, not a chilly winter one. Ben skipped over to a stereo and turned on a light tune as Andy and Eric moved to tend to the food.

Everyone was smiling and laughing happily, the kids running around in the grass. A few couples even started dancing around to the music.

"Happy?" I asked Alec as I stepped up behind him and wrapped him in my arms again, I couldn't get enough of holding him.

"Extremely."

Once the food was done I conjured a huge picnic table for everyone and we all dug in quickly. It was an interesting meal, with so many people that all seemed like family to one another after what they'd gone through.

"Alright, enjoyable as this meal has been, I would kind of like to know why this guy took my wife captive." Damien spoke up. He was across the table from Alec and I, his daughter on his lap.

"Well, the warlock who took everyone is a man by the name of Artemis. He's about four hundred years old and he's always had a temper, and he's extremely dangerous. He's done stuff like this before, always to shadowhunters, but he's somehow managed to deceive the Clave. Most of his stunts have been pulled under fake identities that made it hard to track him down." I explained to him.

"Well, that's all wonderful, but why my wife? Why these people?" By now everyone was listening to us.

"I don't know, honestly. It could be a lot of things; Artemis doesn't always have a reason for what he does."

"No, he took us because we're some of the best shadowhunters, or the children of. He was trying to cripple the clave." Alec corrected quietly. Ben was sitting next to him and looked very confused at his statement, but he didn't ask.

"Yeah, that makes sense; Artemis has always been strongly against the Clave." I stepped in before any of the other's could voice their evident confusion. Alec looked like he really didn't want to go into it.

"Okay, but Artemis got away, right? Who's to say he won't come after us again?" Someone spoke up, I didn't see who it was.

"No one can say that he won't." Alec answered. As soon as he opened his mouth he had everyone's attention. "There is a very good possibility that he will come after us again. Because of that, we all have to be very careful. We'll tell the Clave everything that has happened, and hope that with our entire race knowing of what he's done, Artemis won't have the guts to come after us again, or that he will get captured." All the people at the table nodded at the end of the short speech.

"Alec's right. Going to the Clave is the best way to deal with this, but right now I say we enjoy a few more hours of partying." Johny said in an attempt to break the now somber mood. It worked and everyone fell back into the happy chatter and laughter of earlier. But Alec remained subdued, despite Ben's attempts to make him smile. Once he was finished with his food I pulled Alec away from the table and over to the side of the porch running parallel to the canyon, there was no one else there and it was much quieter.

"What aren't you telling me, Alec?" I asked as I brushed my fingers along his cheek.

"I…the thing that attacked us in the woods, it was Artemis. He came back, Magnus. I never told anyone, and the only two people who did know took it to their graves." Alec took a deep breath. "After he attacked us, I was still conscious for awhile. He came over and taunted me, told me why he'd taken everyone. How he only took me because he was angry that you were with me. He felt it was wrong that you had come into the city he was high Warlock of, he felt you'd stepped into his 'territory' by helping us so often."

"Alec, I," He interrupted me by placing his fingers against my lips.

"No, I don't want any apologies or sympathy. I just want you to promise me that you will help me find Artemis and make sure he never does anything like this again.

"I will." I promised. He nodded and leaned forward to rest his head against my shoulder, his arms pulling me close.

"Alec?"

"Hmm?

"Is there anything else you haven't told me about what happened down there?"

"Just, just one main thing." His eyes drifted off, not looking at me anymore. "But I don't really know how to tell you."

"Alec, what is it? You know I won't be mad." I coaxed. After a minute of searching my eyes with his own he sighed and stepped back a tad.

"Alright, but I'll tell you right now I don't understand this at all. No matter how much I thought about it, I've never been able to figure it out." He told me. I cocked my head to the side in confusion, not understanding what he meant. Alec lifted one hand so that it was between us, the palm facing up. I was about to ask what he was doing when I saw the magic sparking between his fingers and swirling around his hand, it was the same blue as my own magic.

"Alec! What, what?" I couldn't find the right thing to say. Alec should _not_ be able to do that.

"I don't know, Magnus. I've only been aware of it since after I was attacked by Artemis and he ripped up my arm. When I went to heal the cuts with my necklace as much as I could, I realized I could heal them completely. Ben and I spent a lot of time trying to figure it out, but we never could. All I know is that I can seemingly do any type of magic, even if I've never heard of it before." Alec stopped the flow of magic and dropped his hand back to his side.

"Alec, come here." I said gently as I pulled him back to me. He complied and stepped forward, letting me press my hands against his chest. I hadn't seen it before because I hadn't been looking for it, but Alec had the same network of magic tracing along his veins as a warlock would have. But what made even less sense was the fact that his body hadn't rejected his runes because of the magic.

"Magnus, what is this?" He asked pleadingly.

"I…I don't know, Baby. But we're going to find out. I promise." I kissed him softly, pulling him tightly against me. We were going to figure this out, no matter what. 


End file.
